272 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
reddish one about one inch long and a smaller darker one. 
Mr P. T. Deakin kindly identified the former as Avion subfuscus 
var. aurvantiaca and the latter as a Limax. The specimens sub- 
mitted for the Limax were too immature for exact identification. 
Polystictus versicolor, Stereum hirsutum, and other tough and 
leathery fungi, are probably protected against the ravages of 
slugs by their physical consistence; while Lactarius quietus, 
L. rufus, L. glyciosmus, Collybia butyracea, Laccaria laccata and 
Lycoperdon pyriforme are more or less protected against slugs 
by their chemical contents. The majority of fleshy fungi, how- 
ever, seem to be in no way protected against slugs, and some of 
the commonest species, e.g. those of Russula, Amanita, Amani- 
topsis and Boletus, often suffer most. On the whole, the very 
soft-fleshed species seem to be the most relished by slugs, and 
these animals are particularly fond of the soft parenchymatous 
tissues of the Lactarii and of the soft hymenial tubes and flesh 
of many Boleti. Voglino has supposed that slugs are important 
agents in bringing about the dissemination and germination of 
the spores of Russulae, etc., and is inclined to believe in the 
existence of symbiotic relations between slugs and Hymeno- 
mycetes*. I am rather of the opinion that, when a slug attacks 
a fruit-body, the advantage is chiefly, if not entirely, on the 
side of the slug and that, from the point of view of the fungus, 
the slug is a troublesome ectoparasite. As I have pointed out 
elsewhere, the fruit-bodies of the Hymenomycetes are beauti- 
fully organised to secure the dissemination of the spores by the 
wind and their injury by slugs certainly prevents a great many 
spores from being liberatedf. 
ABSENCE OF SLUGS FROM A Woop IN CENTRAL CANADA. 
In the late autumn of 1920, I spent several days at Kenora 
on the Lake of the Woods, central Canada, studying the fleshy 
fungi in the woods; and, although I made a careful search, I 
could not find a single agaric damaged by a slug. 
Slugs, which are common in England and in the extreme west 
of Canada (British Columbia), where the climate is damp and 
moderately warm, are rare in central Canada, where the climate 
is very dry and relatively cold. Most native-born Manitobans, 
so far as I can find out by enquiry, have never seen a living 
slug; and there can be no doubt that the big species of Limax, 
Arion, etc., which abound in gardens and woods in England, 
are entirely absent from central Canada. Nevertheless, Mr J. W. 
Wallis of Winnipeg has assured me that he once found some 
small slugs living wild in the open in Manitoba; and I, myself, 
* Cf. my Researches on Fungi, 1, 1909, pp. 226-227. 
¢ Ibid. p. 228. 
