114 NATURALIST'S AUTUMNAL WALK. 



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 u 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, pro- 

 fuse luxuriance of summer. 



Such notes as these, such passing observations, 

 are perhaps little fitted for, or deserving of, ar- 

 rangement ; yet, in a woodland autumnal ramble, 

 we are naturally, almost irresistibly, led to contem- 

 plate that beautiful and varied race of vegetation 

 included under the name of fungi, so particularly 

 fostered by this season, and which so greatly de- 

 light to spring up in sylvan moisture and decay : 

 nor is there, perhaps, any country better consti- 

 tuted for the production of the whole of this family 

 than England is, particularly that portion of them 

 denominated 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 putrescence of vegetable matter, 

 all combine to give existence to this race. No 

 county is, I believe, more favoured for the pro- 



