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neighbourhood, dwelling more particularly upon those kinds which are 

 best adapted for food. His remarks were illustrated by drawings most 

 carefully and characteristically executed. Your President, who has 

 closely studied this class of organisms, urged upon all the importance of 

 cultivating a more extended knowledge of the Species of Fungi, which, 

 iiTespective of their great beauty, variety, and interest as objects of 

 investigation by the botanist, oifer with la^'ish bounty an abundance of 

 good and wholesome food, which only requires to be known to secure 

 the highest appreciation, not merely of the gastronome or experimentalist, 

 but of the cottager and his family, who may, from these countless stoi'es, 

 secure many a savoury and nutritious addition to theii- frequently hard 

 and unpalatable fare. These things are better understood on the Conti- 

 nent of Europe, where the peasantry are accustomed to preserve Fungi 

 in oil or pickle for culinary purposes ; and death from poisoning by 

 these vegetables is rarely known to occur. 



Dr. Bird read a paper on the Mammalian drifts opened up by the 

 railway-cutting at Beckford, in the Vale of Evesham, which paper was 

 illustrated by sections and drawings made by Mr. Parkinson, C.E., and 

 by a collection of teeth and bones of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Horse, 

 Ox, &c. I would strongly advise a visit by the Club to these gravels, 

 a thorough investigation of which, with especial reference to then- deri- 

 vation, bedding, and contents, would afford matter for a very valuable 

 report. The history of these dnfts has yet to be written, and will form, 

 when completed, a most important contribution to our knowledge of a 

 very obscure subject, to which recent discoveries have given more than 

 ordinaiy point and intei'est. I may add, that in a visit paid to Beckford, 

 last summei-, in comjjany with our colleague, the Kev. Mr. Symoxds, I 

 obtained from the gravel a portion of shell, which was identified by 

 Mr. GwYNNE Jefferies as Lucina borealis; as its name indicates, a truly 

 boreal tj^e, bearing reference to the period when the glacial conditions 

 which had at one time prevailed, wei-e passing off. 



At the request of the President, Mr. Etheeidge gave a sketch of the 

 Geology of the district, as a further illusti-ation of the px-actical field- 

 work done by the Club in the morning. He exhibited a fine diagram of 

 the " New Red Lias," " Oolitic," and " Chalk" formations, with their 

 characteristic Ammonites, Testacea, and fossil organisms, and explained 

 the causes of many geological phenomena connected with the thinning- 

 out of the strata. He also shewed the physical changes in the structure 

 and lithological character of the same rock in different localities, and 



