36 ON COMMENCING THE STUDY OF FUNGI. 



I may naturally expect you to ask me, having found, and, perhaps, 

 named a number of Agarics, what you are to do with such putrescent 

 plants, in order to have some record of your labour I ca?inot recom- 

 mend you to waste your time in attempting to cut them in slices and 

 dry them, since, when you have done so, they will give little or no idea 

 of the living plant. There is only one alternative — you must learn to 

 (Iraiv and colour them to the life. 



This is not such a fearful task as it may seem, and, with a little 

 experience, one who has had no practice in drawing will be able to do 

 it very well. Permit me a hint or two to those who persist in 

 affirming that they cannot draw. Take your Agaric, with a sharp 

 knife cut it right through the cap and down the stem into two equal 

 halves. Laj- the cut surfaces a minute or two upon blotting paper to 

 absorb moisture. Then take one-half and lay it, cut surface down- 

 wards, on paper for drawing. Hold it there, or pin it there, so that it 

 shifts not. Then with a sharp pencil mark round the cap, gills, and 

 stem, tracing the form accuratelj' on the paper. Remove the half 

 fungus, and complete the drawing by hand along the upper edge of 

 the gills, so as to present a correct outline of the cut section. This 

 done, see that you mark also the hollow of the stem if it is hollow, 

 and then proceed to colour the gills of the natural colour, if they are 

 not white, and then the inner surface of the stem, or wherever colour 

 is requisite to a perfect section. Having a perfect and accurate 

 section, you have obtained half of what is necessary. Lay the same, 

 or the other half, on the paper, and trace again in the same way ; but, 

 instead of tracing the gills, leave off at the edge of the cap, remove 

 your section, draw a connecting line across from one edge to the other 

 of the cap, and you have an outline of the growing fungus, drawn 

 mechanically. Colour this also as near as you can in imitation of the 

 living specimen. By getting over the difficulty of drawing by this 

 method, the minor difficulty of colouring will soon be overcome, and, 

 after a time, the mere tracing will so accustom the hand that you will 

 be able to accomplish ai'tistic drawing. 



On these rough drawings may be written all the details which 

 could not be well represented. It may be necessary in your earliest 

 attempts to write the name beneath ; you should add where found, if 

 on the ground or on wood, whether it was viscid or dry, dull or 

 shining, foetid or without odour, etc. These, roughest of all drawings, 

 will serve to remind you of all the features of species you have seen. 

 Take special care to omit nothing that you can see and recognise in the 

 living plant. If you wish to preserve the spores you can obtain them 

 in the method already described, and, folding the paper so as to 

 prevent their rubbing off, attach them to j'our sketches. 



For a few minutes permit me now to answer the question which 

 some one might propound — " Cui bono? " 



There is less asking of such a question now in respect of any 

 natural history pursuit than there was [forty years ago. You must 



