BOTANY 



St. Albans ; Aldbury and Ashridge Park, Tring. In the Lea district : 

 Hatfield Park ; Digswell Park and Sherrards Park Wood near Welwyn ; 

 and the Broxbourne Woods. On each of these occasions, except in 

 1896, the society had the benefit of the presence of either Dr. M. C. 

 Cooke or Mr. George Massee, sometimes also with Mr. Worthington 

 Smith and Dr. H. T. Wharton, who have furnished lists of the fungi 

 for publication in the Transactions of the Society. From the year 

 1888 all the lists have been contributed by Mr. Massee. It is to these 

 lists that our knowledge of the fungi of the county is almost entirely 

 due, and they have furnished nearly every record here given, except the 

 Uredineae and the Myxomycetes or those of Mycetozoa. 



The various groups of fungi will not here be treated in quite a 

 uniform manner. A complete list of species of the Mycetozoa of the 

 county is contributed by the Herts Natural History Society's recorder of 

 this group, Mr. James Saunders, but of all the other fungi lists of the 

 genera only are given, the number of species of each genus which have 

 been found in Hertfordshire being denoted by a figure after its name, 

 forming a census of the fungi at present known to occur in the county. 

 From insufficient knowledge the Tuberaceas, Hysteriacea?, Ustilagineae, 

 and Sphasropsideas are omitted, and so also are the microbes Schizomy- 

 cetes and Saccharomycetes. 



This is not the place to treat of the classification or the morpho- 

 logy of the fungi in general, but on account of the great interest attaching 

 to the metamorphoses through which the Uredineae pass, a brief account 

 of the life-cycle of these microscopic leaf-fungi is given in accord- 

 ance with the views of their chief British investigator, Mr. Charles B. 

 Plowright, whose nomenclature is followed. For the same reason the 

 Mycetozoa are similarly treated (by Mr. Saunders), in this order Mr. 

 Arthur Lister being the authority followed. In all the other groups 

 the classification, nomenclature, and sequence of genera (and also of 

 species when mentioned) are in accordance with Dr. M. C. Cooke's 

 Handbook of British Fungi (1871), modified as to the grouping of the 

 orders chiefly in accordance with his latest views as expressed in his 

 Introduction to the Study of Fungi (1895). 



The fungi which are known to occur in Hertfordshire belong to the 

 following orders (numbered) and larger divisions 



Basidiomycetes ( l " Hymenomycetes . . . . Mushroom-like fungi 

 I 2. Gastromycetes .... Puff-ball fungi 

 3. Uredineae Rust fungi 



Ascomvcetes ( 4 " Venomycetes Capsular fungi 



I 5. Discomycetes Discoid fungi 



6. Physomycetes Conjugating fungi 



7. Hyphomycer.es .... Moulds 



8. Myxomycetes or Mycetozoa Slime fungi 



The Hymenomycetes and Gastromycetes are the only orders of the 

 division of the Basidiomycetes, and comprise all the fungi which have 

 naked spores borne on short and thick supports called basidia. Nearly 

 all the larger fungi which grow on the ground belong to this division, 



