I860.] EXTRACTS FllOiM CORllESPONDENCE. 379 



mossy, grassy turf, which in this wet season was in perfection, 

 both for colour, softness and springiness. But the Toadstools, 

 as the rustics delight to call these exquisitely beautiful objects 

 of the Vegetable Kingdom, ought not to be passed without a 

 word in commendation of their rich and varied colours and beau- 

 tiful forms. The orange Chanterelle and the edible one [Can- 

 tharellus aurantiacus and C. edulis) were plentiful. The intense 

 yellow of the one and the more sober buff of the other were ex- 

 amples of as attractive and exquisite colouring as their crisp, 

 wavy margins were examples of the elegance and variety of na- 

 tural forms. 



The sober dull or pale-brownish colour of the lafge, tall, 

 shaggy Fungus [Agaricus procerus) contrasted very strikingly 

 with the beautiful deep scarlet, elegantly spotted with white, of 

 the handsome Fly Fungus {A. muscarius). The humbler species 

 of this large genus, for example, the Amethystine Fungus {A. 

 amethystinus) and A. conicus, characterized by the variety of its 

 colours, viz. bright red, orange, yellow, brown, and black, formed 

 interesting and charming groups of objects. 



The most showy or noticeable plants on the gravelly heath, 

 exclusive of the heath itself (chiefly Ling) , now in the fullness of 

 its beauty, were the Ulex nanus, j ust beginning to flower ; the rigid, 

 narrow-leaved variety of Hieracium umbellatum, an elegant plant 

 on Hayes Common and in Holwood Park. Here there are some 

 slender and dwarf forms, bearing only a single flower, and there 

 are others bearing probably a score of bright yellow blossoms. 

 The Golden-rod, Solidago Virgaurea, was only beginning to flower, 

 the Erigeron acris, not common here, but plentiful a mile further 

 to the south, where the chalk crops out, was very stately and 

 handsome. The examples here are few, but they are good. 



The heath plants are procured with little trouble, and though 

 not rare they are sufficiently attractive to deserve notice. The 

 marsh plants, on the other hand, are far more numerous and 

 rarer than those which grow on the dry hard gravelly parts ; some 

 of the bog species at least are rarities of an interesting kind, 

 and their value is considerably enhanced by the efforts to pro- 

 cure good specimens, and at the same time to keep the feet in 

 that comfortable condition in which the soldiers of the Parlia- 

 mentary army were commanded by their sagacious General to 

 keeip their powder. 



