A HISTORY OF SURREY 



plants. Others again, as illustrated by the numerous forms of fungi 

 popularly known as toadstools, derive their food from dead wood or 

 decaying vegetable matter. The common mushroom and other kinds 

 that grow in the ground might be supposed to obtain their food directly 

 from the soil as flowering plants do. This however is not the case ; the 

 spawn or mycelium of all such fungi derive their food from decaying 

 vegetable matter present in the soil. 



Just about five thousand different kinds of fungi are natives of 

 Britain and out of these two thousand have been found in Surrey. This 

 number, although higher than that for any other equal area in Britain or 

 probably elsewhere, does not necessarily prove that the fungus flora of 

 Surrey is exceptionally rich but simply that one particular portion of the 

 county has been thoroughly investigated. This portion is the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, where continuous attention has been paid to the fungi for 

 many years past. The Gardens have an area of about three hundred 

 acres, and in 1897 a list of the fungi was published which included 1,340 

 species (Kew Bulletin, April, 1897). Since the above publication some 

 hundreds of species have been added to the list, hence after deducting 

 1 50 foreign species introduced along with exotic plants the number of 

 native species is enormously in excess of any published record for a 

 similar area. 



The latticed stinkhorn (Clatbrus cancellatus) is undoubtedly the most 

 interesting fungus met with in the county, not only on account of its 

 quaint form, beautiful colour and most abominable smell, but more 

 especially as being along with two other commoner British species the 

 outlying representatives of one of the most highly organized groups of 

 fungi characteristic of tropical regions. In the vast majority of fungi 

 the spores or reproductive bodies are dispersed by wind, but in the group 

 under consideration (Phalloidea) the spores are produced on a body 

 which at maturity dissolves into a dripping slimy exceedingly foetid mass 

 possessing an intensely sweet taste and is much appreciated as food by 

 blue-bottles and other flies which visit the plants in myriads, being attracted 

 by the widespread penetrating smell and brilliant colour of the fungus. 

 The spores after passing through the body of an insect germinate readily, 

 and those that are deposited in a suitable locality give origin to a fungus 

 in due course. The development of the fungus takes place underground, 

 where at a certain stage it resembles in shape and size a hen's egg, feeling 

 rather soft and elastic. When the spores are mature the egg-like structure 

 bursts irregularly at the top and a hollow sphere bounded by an irregular 

 network of a bright red colour and varying from two to four inches in 

 diameter appears above ground. The foetid mass of greenish slime 

 containing the spores is spread over the latticed sphere. It is interesting 

 to note that the combination of smell and colour utilized by many flower- 

 ing plants for the purpose of attracting insects to secure cross-fertilization 

 should also be employed by certain fungi as an indirect aid in spore 

 dispersion. 



Tremellodon ge/atinosum, Pers., another very remarkable fungus and 



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