NOTES ON THE MYCOLOGY OF KELVINGROVE PARK. 75 
Notes on the Mycology of Kelvingrove Park. 
By Witiiam SrEewart. 
(Read 27th October, 1896.] 
A youne mycologist would probably despise the Glasgow public 
parks as a field for investigation, under the impression that so 
well-kept grounds do not afford the necessary conditions for the 
development of organisms which flourish best where decay and 
disorder reign. And it is true that the old woods of a neglected 
estate afford the student the best hunting-grounds for Fungi, which, 
with the beetles, are Nature’s scavengers, specially designed to 
hasten the decay, and assist in the speedy removal of higher 
organisms that have served their day and generation, and become 
cumberers of the ground. In such a situation the profusion of 
Fungi is only puzzling to a young student, and a field that only 
offers a few varieties will prove more profitable, as his attention is 
then fixed on only a few species, and he gets their general appear- 
ance and peculiar characteristics so impressed on his memory 
that he readily recognises them at a second finding. From this 
consideration the parks offer a favourable and convenient field for 
beginners, and will be found worthy of attention by those even 
well advanced, for I have seldom visited any of them in suitable 
conditions of season and temperature without being rewarded by 
the finding of some to add to the record. When we remember 
that Glasgow now possesses thirteen parks, with convenient means 
of reaching them, several of them of large acreage and fairly 
wooded, it must be apparent that it will repay a mycologist who 
cannot spare time for a distant foray to take an occasional excursion 
through grounds so easily accessible. On a visit to Cathkin Park 
Professor Thomas King and I made a very good list on a day this 
year which was not very favourable. As Professor King took the 
notes, I cannot give the numbers, but we were surprised at its 
length under unfavourable conditions. 

