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The smaller Pezizas are very elegant in their forms, and their mycelia some- 
times so penetrate into decaying wood as to give it an abiding colour, as is 
particularly the case with P. wruginosa, its coppery green often meeting the eye 
in decaying wood fallen to the ground. The incrustations, as they may be called, 
of Polyporus versicolor, Stereum hirsutum, and others of the same tribe, cover the 
branches of trees more conspicuously than Lichens, and old palings beset in the same 
way often present tints that an artist would take pleasure to copy with his fine 
Raphaelite pencil. A writer on cryptogamic vegetation has said of the fungi that 
‘in studying their history we walk amid surprises,” and “ marvellous are the vistas 
that reveal themselves,” yet I think that it is scarcely to be wondered at that the 
autumnal scene should be beautified and coloured by so many funguses when we 
reflect that the air is filled with their sporules, which, when brought down by the 
rain, settle and multiply wherever a decaying pabulum offers them the chance of 
colonization. 
T have not half exhausted the subject, or done it justice, and must leave some 
colours on my pallet, and conclude with the evidence of Dr. Badham, that “the 
Fungus tribe are as beautiful as the fairest flowers, and more useful than most 
fruits ;” but to judge of this we must wander out of beaten paths, in woods and 
coverts, and in the most inspiring of months, when colorific beauty blends its 
harmonies with the autumnal landscape, and we can in a “‘ Fungus Foray” view 
that diversity in form and colour, which, alas! like all earthly pleasures, has only 
an ephemeral existence. But as a philosophical and observant poet has well 
observed, a limited existence changing into other elements is all that is permitted 
to the denizens of earth, whether of animal or vegetable birth— 
Whate’er of earth is form’d, to earth returns 
Dissolved ; the various objects we behold, 
Plants, animals, the whole material mass 
Are ever changing, ever new ! 
And thus research may be continued and fresh knowledge gained while life lasts, 
and the great globe that we inhabit shall endure. 
