43 



THE FUNGUS MEETING AT HEREFORD. 



The annual meeting of the Woolhope Club, for its " Fungus Foray," was 

 appointed for the week beginninff Monday, October 1st, and ending Saturday, 

 October 6th, but a few members of the Society put in an appearance at Hereford 

 as early as September 26th. No special work was done by the Club till Monday, 

 but on the previous Thursday, Thomas Andrew Knight's " Monarch " orchard 

 was visited, at Tillington, his birthplace at Wormsley Grange, and his grave. 



HEREFORD POMOLOGY. 



The visit to Wormsley was altogether a pomological excursion, the author- 

 ities being Dr. Hogg, Dr. Bull, the Rev. C. H. Bulmer, and an old man from 

 Hereford, 80 years of age, who brought a branch of Xanthium spinosum with him, 

 just found close to Hereford. Many of the apples now growing at Wormsley, 

 are hybrids or seedlings, difficult, if not impossible, to name. The latter part of 

 the Wormsley day was devoted to archaeological and architectural matters, ending 

 w^ith lawn tennis, and an excellent dinner at the Rev. C. H. Bulmer's. The 

 Hereford men did not leave Credenhill till after 10 p.m., and the 4 miles drive to 

 Hereford was through a thick, white, wet fog, which, though it gave a romantic 

 turn to the drive — it being like riding through the clouds— yet the wet air got sadly 

 into the bronchial tubes of the fungologists, and with anything but pleasant 

 effects. Ou Friday, the 28th, the pomologists visited Holme Lacy, to see the 

 wonderful collection of pears, growing upon a south wall, and to see the portraits 

 of Lord Scudamore and Mr. Cornewall. Good gardening was observed in the 

 magnificent growth of the pears, of Tropaeolum speciosum, Gentiana acaulis, &c. ; 

 together with bad gardening, represented by enormous <iuantities of diseased 

 potatoes allowed to fall into a mass of wet decay upon the surface of the beds. 

 Truffles were turned up from under laurels. In the afternoon, a visit was paid 

 to Breinton, to see a famous Foxwhelp apple tree, but, owing to the badness of 

 the season, only one apple could be found, but a mistletoe plant was observed 

 growing upon the tree, with a whorl of three leaves instead of two. At this place 

 a fine specimen of Polyporus hispidus was observed on an ash, but as one side of 

 the ladder always fell off when the top was reached, neither ladder nor tree could 

 be ascended ; some mischievous person, moreover, had, a short time before, shot 

 the Polyporus. Fungi are not included among the small birds protected by Act 

 of Parliament. Here a small collection of apples was examined, some with pecu- 

 liar names, as "Hang down," and " The Ten Commandments." On asking for an 

 explanation of the latter, an apple was cut in two, so as to display ten bundles of 

 vascular tissue, very strongly marked. These names were surpassed, however, by 

 the names of others which have found their way to Hereford, as " End of the 



