REPORT ON THE FUNGI OF TEXAS. 



SIR : In accordance with an invitation to accompany Professor Gamgee to Texas, and 

 to make an examination of the botany of the country where he investigated the cattle 

 disease, and especially to direct attention to the lower cryptogamic flora, the fungi, and 

 algse, and also to examine the grasses and other plants furnishing food for cattle, I reached 

 Galveston on the morning of the 28th of March, and proceeded at once to Houston to 

 join Professor Gamgee. 



After making a cursory examination into the pastures of the neighborhood of Hous 

 ton, I accepted an invitation from Colonel Ashbel Smith to visit his farm at Galveston 

 Bay, Harris County, and reached that place on the 30th. Here I had an opportunity of 

 seeing a variety of soils, prairie as well as heavily-timbered land, the latter rather rare in 

 this part of Texas. Colonel Smith offered me ample facilities for investigation, and, from 

 his long residence in the country and extensive information, I was enabled to derive much 

 benefit. I spent five days at this place, and made large collections of fungi and some few 

 grasses. I made an examination also of hay which had been cut last summer and stacked 

 in the fields. It was perfectly sound, and of bright and healthy color, without any indi 

 cation of moldiness or parasitic growth. The hay was cut from a body of prairie land, 

 inclosed by a fence, a portion of which had been burnt off for the purpose. The remain 

 ing portion, in the old dried grasses of the last season, presented no difference in appearance 

 from dried grasses in similar situations ; nothing to indicate any increased growth of para 

 sitic fungi, or of having suffered from that cause. Colonel Smith was good enough to 

 furnish me with notes of his place, which I append, to give an idea of the quality and 

 situation of his lands: 



The Evergreen estate is situated in 29 42 north latitude, at the head of Galveston Bay, within the de- 

 houchure of the united waters of Buffalo Bayou and the Sail Jaciuto River, over Chopper s Bar, and on the east side of 

 the river. It is washed in its rear by the Cedar Bayou, which empties into Galveston Bay some two miles lower down. 

 This bayou is from twenty-five to thirty feet deep. There is scarcely any swamp or bottom, properly so called. The 

 geological formation is alluvial. The soil on the San Jaciuto or bay side is chiefly a sandy loam ; that at the Cedar 

 Bayou is a very black, stiff soil, and commonly known in this State as &quot; hog wallow,&quot; from numerous depressions of the 

 surface as if made by the wallowing of hogs. The estate comprises about four thousand acres, pretty equally divided 

 in quantity into prairie and heavily-timbered land. Oak and cedar are the prevailing timber. There are also pines, 

 hackberry, pecan, elm, ash, plum, persimmon, &c. There are four species of grapes at least. The mustang and mus 

 cadine abound in immense quantities. Both these vines, which are heavy bearers, make an excellent wine. The 

 grasses are numerous ; those growing spontaneously on the black lands, when protected from the feeding of animals by 

 inclosnre, make an excellent hay. The adjacent waters modify the temperature of the air most sensibly, both in sum 

 mer and winter. The winter cold is about five degrees milder than that of Houston, as shown by a comparison of 

 thermometers. The fields, when cultivated in corn, cotton, and sugar-cane, as before the war, yield abundantly. 



After my return to Houston I went into the country, about three miles from the 

 town, to a farm-house on the Buffalo Bayou, where I employed about two weeks in exam 

 ining the pastures and grasses and making collections of Fungi and other Cryptogams. 

 The wooded growth along the banks of the bayou consisting of Magnolia, Laurus, Ilex, 

 Ungnadia or Spanish buckeye, Pecan, Tilia, &c., affords a fine field for the Fungi, and at 

 this place I collected about two hundred distinct species. The pastures were quite green, 

 but the grass was still young and scarcely sufficiently grown to be identified. I collected 

 here all that were in flower and could be distinguished. My attention was directed to their 



