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On the Abundance of certain Fungi on Worlehury Hill, Weston- 

 super-mare, in the Autumn of 1851. By Edwin Lees, Esq., 

 F.L.S. 



Having been led to spend a week at Weston in the month of Octo- 

 ber last, I paid several visits to Worlebury Hill, well known to 

 antiquaries for the ruins of an ancient fortification upon it, long 

 encompassing mounds of broken carboniferous limestone, yet remain- 

 ing very prominent, among the crevices of which the Rubia peregrina 

 takes firm hold, and spreads about luxuriantly; and the Ceterach 

 officinarura dots with its pretty fronds the fragmentary stones once 

 guarded by stern warriors. 



This hill is now planted with firs and larches, and has therefore 

 lost its primitive aspect of a bare, exposed down ; and with the trees 

 many Fungi have introduced themselves, probably strangers there 

 before. This opens a subject of curious inquiry, for some Fungi ap- 

 pear invariably on the stumps of felled trees, though it must be doubt- 

 ful in what manner pre-existing sporules migrated there, if they did 

 so at all. In the case of fairy-rings, circles of agarics suddenly ap- 

 pear where they had been previously unnoticed ; and, as Dr. Badham, 

 in his account of the English esculent Fungi, justly observes, "We 

 know as little of the origin of the fairy-rings, as of any other pheno- 

 menon connected with the growth of funguses." I was particularly 

 struck with the number of Agaricus rutilans (xerampelinus, Sotv.) on 

 Worlebury Hill, almost every larch-stump presenting a group of this 

 richly-coloured species, whose golden gills so well distinguish it 

 among the intricate tribe of agarics. The scales of the pileus are at 

 first purplish, and the epidermis pale, but in maturity the down be- 

 comes crimson and sienna, and the gills of a golden yellow too vivid 

 for the pencil to portray. This agaric must be a new botanical fea- 

 ture here, for, though the plantation seems of about twenty years' 

 growth, the agaric would not appear until its proper nidus presented 

 itself in the stumps of the firs or larches. Another beautiful agaric, 

 that was very plentiful on the mossy turf of the hill, but within the 

 limits of the plantation, was Agaricus deliciosus, distinguished by its 

 orange gills and red juice. In a young state its pileus is zoned with 

 red in light and deep alternate shades, but changing to duller orange, 

 and when past maturity fading to pale brown, and looking very dif- 

 ferent to its early state. The gills, too, though at first of a bright 

 orange hue, become greenish, and even prismatic, in decay. 



