XIII. ] ABOUT FUNGI. 189 
as their structure, are not wanting in rich and delicate 
tints, so that the colour-student would find much to 
charm him, and good practice for his pencil in these 
much despised examples of low life” (Cooke). 
But the reader may fancy it is not enjoyable work 
hunting for fungi in autumn when the woods are 
damp. Hear what Mr. Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S., 
has to say upon that point: “ The study of the larger 
fungi has been to me one of the greatest pleasures of 
my life: when all things else have failed, this has 
never failed; it has taken me into the pleasantest of 
places and amongst the best of people. Had it not 
been for fungi, I should have been dead years ago; 
often tired, jaded, and harassed with business matters, 
a stroll in the rich autumn woods has given me a 
new lease of life. In these favourite haunts I never 
tire or flag; rain, fog, and mud never detract from 
the pleasure of the woods to me,—I am only de- 
pressed in the hot, dry weather of midsummer. In 
the autumn I constantly visit the forests, with all my 
collecting paraphernalia; I sometimes take a saw to 
cut off the big, woody, fungous excrescences of trees. 
I was. once fortunate enough to find a ladder in a 
wood, which proved invaluable for ascending the 
beeches in search of Agaricus muctdus, &c. I, how- 
ever, find fungi everywhere: I only go round the 
corner, and there they are. I often visit a neighbour- 
ing builder’s yard, and descend the sawpits, to the 
amazement of the operatives: some of the rarest 
species of our flora, and many new ones, I have 
found within a few minutes’ walk of my own house. 
I once found a rare Lentinus on a log as it was being 
