170 



%^t Jftingt of Milt^Ijiu. 



By C. E. Beoome, Esq. 



5N offering to the Wiltshire Archseolcgical and Natural 

 History Society, a list of such Fungi as have occurred to 

 me in the county, I am prompted by the wish to draw attention 

 to a class of plants hitherto very much neglected, which will 

 however, amply repay persons fond of natural history for any 

 trouble they may take in their investigation. The list is a very 

 imperfect one, and the more so, as it has not been put together 

 with a view to publication, but is, with one or two exceptions, a 

 mere catalogue of the species in my own herbarium, which have 

 been met with in the county of Wilts. Whilst collecting specimens, 

 the commoner species, or such as I may have already obtained 

 from other quarters, have been frequently passed over ; so that 

 many of the more common Wiltshire forms are, no doubt, omitted. 

 Although often considered unworthy attention, or even repulsive 

 in their nature, Fungi can boast of having among their ranks 

 individuals that equal in point of colour and symmetry, anything 

 that the flower garden can produce, and others of a more sober 

 hue, which, in the elegance and beauty of their forms, are not to 

 be surpassed by any members of the vegetable kingdom. To the 

 microscopist they afford an almost inexhaustible source of enter- 

 tainment and gratification ; to ladies more especially, or such 

 persons as cannot extend their researches far from home, they 

 present this advantage, that numerous objects well deserving careful 

 study may be met with in their own gardens on all decaying 

 vegetable matter, or may even be raised in any damp cupboard on 

 a plate of sour paste, or boiled rice ; and those persons who are 

 skilful with their pencil will here find materials whose fugitive 

 beauties it will test all their powers to commit to paper. 



Considerable difficulties have hitherto attended the study of these 



