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WOOLHOPE FUNGUS FORAY. 

 Twenty-one years ago the Woolhope Club organized its first "Foray 

 amongst the Funguses," as it was called, the primary object being to collect 

 specimens of edible fungi for cooking and serving at the annual dinner. 

 Subsequently and speedily the scope of the forays was widened, so as to include 

 all the larger fungi, especially the Hymenomycetes, and has been continued with 

 more or less success down to the isresent day. The total number of the species 

 of British Agaricini may be taken as 1334, and of these 483 have been collected 

 in Herefordshire and recorded in the new Herefordshire Flora. This is, as 

 yet, the largest number recorded for any British county, that of Essex 

 having reached only 410. The Woolhope excursions for this year commenced 

 on October 1st, and the place of assembly was Ludlow, in Shropshire, 

 with the weather favourable, but the ground and the woods on this side 

 of the kingdom were too dry to give any promise of success. The party was 

 a smaller one than usual, scarcely exceeding ten on any of the days, whilst the 

 lack of " game " represented also a lack of enthusiasm. Amongst those who took 

 part in the explorations of the week were the Rev. Canon Du Port, Rev. J. E. 

 Vize, and Messrs. Bucknall, Phillips, Plowright, and M. C. Cooke. Tuesday's 

 excursion was made in the woods of Downton Castle, over ground which had not 

 been visited by the Club for many years ; but it soon became jjainfully manifest 

 that the old success was not to be realized, and after patient and diligent search 

 for about four hours, only about eighty species could be enumerated, and of these 

 only one or two individuals had been seen. Two old and dry specimens of 

 Strobilomyces only were found, and this has generally been a species of certain 

 occurrence somewhere during the Woolhope week. Marasmius Hudsoni was 

 rather plentiful on Holly leaves, but scarcely anything else of interest. The 

 Wednesday's excursion was made in the woods of Downton Hall, now for the first 

 time visited by the Club. The excursion was in itself a pleasant one, but as barren 

 of results as the previous day had been, only sixty-eight species being determined, 

 of which the most interesting was Agaricus (InocyheJ hcemactus, a species first 

 found at Credenhill several years ago, and now seen again for the second time. 

 Although the total number of species found was below that of the Tuesday, there 

 was a larger number of interesting species, such as Agaricus pelianthinus, 

 calamistratus, acerosus, Fricsii, Marasmius erythropus, and Russula Linncd. The 

 Club day, Thursday, was occupied by a morning excursion to Dinmore, where 

 about sixty species were determined between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. ; but this number 

 had to be made up by recourse to microscopical species. The annual dinner after- 

 wards, at the Green Dragon Hotel, was characterized by no especial feature, and 

 Hydnum repandum was the fungus dish cooked "from the Club recipes," and 

 served round to the assembled guests. In the evening, at a conversazione held at 

 the house of T. Cam, Esq., one of the past presidents of the Club, a very large 

 party of ladies and gentlemen were assembled, and papers read by E. C. Phillips, 

 F.L.S., " On the Occurrence of the Great Black Woodpecker in Great Britain ; " 

 by Rev. J. E. Vize, on "The Breathing System of Flowering Plants and their 

 Allies ; " and by W. Phillips, F.L.S., " On Popularizing the Knowledge of Edible 



