A EUROPEAN MARE'S NEST. 



The literature of Europe has been enriched by a wonderful "new species" 

 of Poria, which departed from all known species in its habitat, growing on the 

 pileus of an Agaric. It was discovered by Dr. F. Ludwig, who gave an account 

 of it in Hedwigia in 1882. 



There is a specimen in the herbarium of Winter at Berlin. Bresadola, 



who has seen it, endorses on the 

 label that it is not a Poria at all 

 but an anomaly of the Agaric 

 which produces imperfect gills 

 on top of the pileus. I have 

 seen just such abnormal agarics 

 myself, and on closely examining 

 the specimens there is no doubt 

 in my mind that Bresadola's 

 statement is the correct explana- 

 Fig. 274. tion. Thus the wonderful "new 



species" of Dr. Ludwig fades 



away into the same class with the wonderful "new genus" Dictybole of Pro- 

 fessor Atkinson's exploitation. All flesh is mortal. I have recently heard 

 rumors of a "Poria" that grows on Phalloid eggs in Java. I hope it will 

 materialize into something definite and not join the Dictybole class. 



THE NATURALIST A SANE MAN. 



Cartoonists, humorists, and jokesmiths generally have immemorially taken 

 delight in the kindly people who wander over the green hillsides of spring and 

 the golden meadows of summer chasing bugs, and eke the butterfly. It is the 

 custom to point out these gentle folk as a species of harmless creatures, pleas- 

 antly irresponsible in their actions, a little loose in their upper stories and en- 

 titled to the guardianship of all the rest of us. 



But we are wrong in our diagnosis of the case. The naturalist is the sanest 

 man in the world. He is the one man among us who gets the best out of life. 

 He finds himself in a wonderful world and with only one small lifetime in 

 which to explore that world. He has discovered that there is vastly more for 

 his consideration than men and women. In fact, he is apt to find that it is 

 only men and women who are dull and uninteresting. Wherefore the wise 

 man sallies out to the wide spaces, to the great hills and the deep-hushed val- 

 leys ; he wanders by the mountain streams and is brother to the sun, moon, and 

 stars. He visits the things of the wild in their wonderful cities and towns, talks 

 with the builder ant, the busy, marvelous bee, the birds as they rear their young, 

 and the squirrel as he gathers his winter store. 



And what does this man learn? More than we learn, brethren, in our 

 stuffy towns, bartering and trading in our sordid marts, missing the beauty, 

 the miracle, and the wonder of things. Here is California, glowing in the glory 

 of God's smile. What do we know of it? We know so little, indeed, that when 

 we shall look back upon it from the streets of the New Jerusalem we shall re- 

 gret, even there, that we once had it, like a lute, in our hands and never learned 

 to play on it. Los Angeles Times. 



AMATEUR WORK. We note from a recent review of Arthur's work in 

 North American Flora that he has only succeeded in adding his name to 

 about half of the plants named. A sincere follower of the Kuntze system of 

 juggling names usually succeeds in from eighty to ninety per cent. What a 

 contempt a genuine Kuntzeite must have for such amateur work as Arthur 

 seems to be doing in this line! 



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