AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF FUNGI. 265 
becomes proportionate to their rarity. Corda’s cones Fungarum 
by no means costly at first is now saleable at £28. Sowerdby’s 
English Fungi seems to be almost extinct. Still if any one really 
cares to examine the Fungi, the need of books by no means neces- 
sitates ignorance of the science; he can make his own drawings, 
and he can obtain a copy of Dr. Cooke’s Handbook of Fungi, a 
work which embraces the information contained in Mr. Berkeley’s 
Outlines of Fungology, and in those valuable papers of Messrs. 
Berkeley and Broome scattered here and there in the Alagazines and 
Annuals of Natural History. We can also cope with the times, 
and the most recent ones too, by subscribing to that record of 
Cryptogamic Botany issued every quarter, called “ Grevellea.” 
But the difficulty about books is nothing like as great to one who 
wants to become an amateur, as the question, ‘‘ How am I to begin?” 
“If I only had some one who would show me how to begin it 
would be sucha help. Some one to put me in the right way.” 
Then comes a sigh, then indifference, then no work for ever. How 
does the student of Phanerogamic Botany begin? Does he go 
about asking for guidance? Does he ask to be shown a pretty 
flower, and just the place where he shall find an account of it in 
the British Flora? Certainly not. He goes to work on his own 
account ; he finds his plant himself, brings it home, perhaps gets 
puzzled to ascertain its name, possibly gets help; and if he is not 
over zealous at first, that embryo student will plod onwards, and 
become really clever in his department. The sooner he casts off 
his crutches and labours on his own account the better. Now, if 
aman thus begins flowers, exactly so may he learn the Fungi. 
People who do not want to find things unless moulded to suit 
their ease will not succeed. Let a person go out of doors, let him 
use his common sense and his eyes, exercise a small amount of 
patience, and he cannot help finding Fungi. There are upwards 
of 3,000 already recorded as existing in Great Britain, and he who 
seeks for them is certain not to labour in vain. 
Amongst the difficulties, one may be mentioned here which ex- 
ceeds those just named, it is that of assigning the correct name to 
a plant. Some Fungi are in outward appearance very much like 
others whose orthodox places are very remote from each other. 
In fact, so difficult is it to say decidedly what a plant is without 
microscopic help, that the higher authorities rarely venture to name 
anything off hand, or if they do, it is with the understanding that 
a critical examination shall be made of it when opportunity offers. 
Of this we may be sure, that study will unfold the name and place 
of many a thing which is perhaps unknown for a long time, and of 
another thing we may be more certain still, that when it is known 
that a man really does his best to ascertain his plants, there is such 
a feeling among the lovers of mycology that every one is ready to 
