xni ] ABOUT FUNGI. 197 



has been merely to give a slight general indication of 

 the wonders that are to be found by the student of 

 botany. Full information respecting any particular 

 group of plants here mentioned must be sought for 

 in the works of the authorities we have quoted. 



It may not be out of place to conclude this chapter 

 with another extract from Mr. VV. G. Smith. He 

 says : 



" Collecting fungi is not without its humours as well 

 as its pleasures, as the following will show. I once saw a 

 portly, well-dressed gentleman walking along the high- 

 road, with his vasculum over his shoulders, and carry- 

 ing home (one in each hand) a pair of cast-off, rotten 

 boots, discarded by some vagrant ; the rotting leather 

 having produced a crop of rare microscopic fungi. 

 At times abominable cast-off foetid gipsy rags will be 

 lovingly taken from out a ditch, arid choice pieces 

 cut out and consigned to the vasculum of the crypto- 

 gamic botanist ; at other times some rare species will 

 be seen ' up a tree,' and it has several times happened 

 in my presence that one enthusiastic botanist has got 

 on to the shoulders of another to secure a prize, or 

 even waded into a pond to get at some prostrate 

 fungus-bearing log. The humours of truffle-hunting 

 are manifold. I have seen a gentleman trespass, on 

 hands and knees, through a holly-hedge, on to a gentle- 

 man's lawn, and there dig up the turf in some promis- 

 ing spot, risking an attack from the house-dog, or a 

 few shots from the proprietor ; the said trespasser 

 meanwhile armed with a rake, gouge, and dangerous- 

 looking open knife. Country labourers are often 

 sorely puzzled by the acts of cryptogamic botanists ; 



