XIII] ABOUT FUNGI. 197 
has been merely to give a slight general indication of 
the wonders that are to be found by the student of 
botany. Full information respecting any particular 
group of plants here mentioned must be sought for 
in the works of the authorities we have quoted. 
It may not be out of place to conclude this chapter 
with another extract from Mr. W. G. Smith. He 
says :— 
“ Collecting fungi is not without its humours as well 
as its pleasures, as the following will show. Ioncesawa 
portly, well-dressed gentleman walking along the high- 
road, with his vasculum over his shoulders, and carry- 
ing home (one in each hand) a pair of cast-off, rotten 
boots, discarded by some vagrant ; the rotting leather 
having produced a crop of rare microscopic fungi. 
At times abominable cast-off fcetid gipsy rags will be 
lovingly taken from out a ditch, and choice pieces , 
cut out and consigned to the vasculum of the crypto- 
gamic botanist ; at other times some rare species will 
be seen ‘ up a tree,’ and it has several times happened 
in my presence that one enthusiastic botanist has got 
on to the shoulders of another to secure a prize, or 
even waded into a pond to get at some prostrate 
fungus-bearing log. The humours of truffle-hunting 
are manifold. I have seen a gentleman trespass, on 
hands and knees, through a holly-hedge, on toa gentle- 
man’s lawn, and there dig up the turf in some promis- 
ing spot, risking an attack from the house-dog, or a 
few shots from the proprietor; the said trespasser 
meanwhile armed with a rake, gouge, and dangerous- 
looking open knife. Country labourers are often 
sorely puzzled by the acts of cryptogamic botanists ; 
