67 



October, 1868, an extra Field Meeting will be held in Herefi)rd for a foraj' 

 amongst the funguses. This appears to be the inauguration of the now celebrated 

 Fungus Forays of the Woolhope Club. The report of this meeting in the 

 following year records the fact that the Foray was successful under the guidance 

 of Mr. Edwin Lees and Mr. Worthington Smith, and twenty-one persons sat 

 down to dinner. From this time forward the Fungus Foray was an annual 

 institution which has now been continued for 18 years. It has much widened 

 in its scope, and increased in its interest, so that it has gained repute all over 

 Europe, and had many imitators. As far as I am aware it was the first of its 

 kind, and for some time the only one, but subsequently others were held in 

 Paris, and in several places in Great Britain. Beside our own mycologists, 

 not forgetting Messrs. Berkeley and Broome, the Club has welcomed distin- 

 guished mycologists from the Continent. Messrs. Cornu, Boudier, De Seynes, 

 and Quelet, being of their number. Undoubtedly the origination of these Forays, 

 and the active sustenance of them, was due to the energy and enterprise of 

 Dr. Bull. As certainly the establishment of these Forays had something to do 

 with the preparation and publication of the Hai\dlook of British Fungi in 1871, 

 for at once the necessity for such a work became apparent. Later on it was 

 suggested that some compact volume for field work would be an advantage, and in 

 1878, the Clavis Hymcnomycctuni made its appearance. Finally the excellent series 

 of drawings of Fungi which had been made by Dr. Bull prompted the publication 

 of Illustrations of Fungi, which were commenced in 1881, in consequence of the 

 strong recommendation of some of the members of the Woolhope Club. Thus it 

 will be seen that the influence of these Forays extended very far beyond the 

 annual meetings, and indeed gave an impetus to the study of Fungi in this 

 country. The whole number of species in 18U0 had more than doubled in 1871, 

 and these again have at least doubled again since that period. Primarily the 

 earnestness of one man called these Forays into existence and maintained them, 

 and secondarily, through them, stimulated the study of Fungi in Britain, and a 

 considerable addition to its literature. A greater monument still was carved by 

 his own hands on the pages of the Herefordshire Pomona. I think he would 

 himself have wished for no more enduring or more worthy monument of his 

 assiduity and perseverance. It was during later years the "great idea " of his 

 life, and by it he will be remembered when his association with Fungus Forays 

 will have been forgotten. The conception was an excellent one, and to the end 

 it was magnificently carried out. Vast as were the difficulties which presented 

 themselves to one who might fairly be characterised, at the first, as only an 

 amateur pomologi»t, yet he surmounted them all by that indomitable energy 

 and perseverance which was so characteristic of his career. " Forward " was still 

 his motto, and, whether in the literary or the artistic aspect, he was not 

 content if he recognised any detail which seemed capable of improvement. In a 

 more humble way, and with less pretensions, we know how he exerted himself 

 in the remarkable trees of Herefordshire, and this was even earlier, in point of 

 time, than his fungological proclivities, and yet to the last he retained a fond 

 remembrance of his first love. He could never see a big tree, but he seemed 



