NATURALIST'S AUTUMNAL WALK 85 



yet appears, and we note it from its loneliness. Spread- 

 ing on the light foliage of the fern, dry and mature, the 

 spider has fixed her toils, and motionless in the midst 

 watches her expected prey, every thread and mesh 

 beaded with dew, trembling with the zephyr's breath. 

 Then falls the " sere and yellow leaf," parting from its 

 spray without a breeze tinkling in the boughs, and 

 rustling scarce audibly along, rests at our feet, and tells 

 us that we part too. All these are distinctive symbols 

 of the season, marked in the silence and sobriety of 

 the hour ; and form, perhaps, a deeper impression on 

 the mind, than any afforded by the verdant promises, 

 the vivacities of spring, or the gay, profuse luxuriance 

 of summer. 



Such notes as these, such passing observations, are 

 perhaps little fitted for, or deserving of, arrangement, 

 yet, in a woodland autumnal ramble, we are naturally, 

 almost irresistibly, led to contemplate that beautiful 

 and varied race of vegetation included under the name 

 of fungi, so particularly fostered by this season, and 

 which so greatly delight to spring up in sylvan moisture 

 and decay : nor is there perhaps any country better 

 constituted for the production of the whole of this family 

 than England is, particularly that portion of them de- 

 nominated agarics. The various natures of our soil and 

 pastures, the profusion of our woods and copses, the 

 humidity of our climate, united with the general warmth 

 of our autumn, accelerating rapid decay, and putres- 

 cence of vegetable matter, all combine to give existence 

 to this race. No county is, I believe, more favored for 

 the production of most of the kinds than Monmouth, 

 with its deep dark woods, and alpine downs. A resi- 

 dence in that portion of the kingdom for some years 

 introduced to my notice a larger portion of this singu- 

 lar race than every botanist is acquainted with. A sports- 

 man then, but I fear I shall be called a recreant brother 

 of the craft, when I own having more than once let my 

 woodcock escape, to secure and bear away some of these 

 fair but perishable children of the groves. Travellers 

 tell us of the splendor of this race in the jungles of 

 Madagascar, but nothing surely can exceed the beauty 

 H ' 



