462 
Webiewo. 
The Natural History Review for July, 1856. London: Williams 
and Norgate. 
From the pages of this mstructive periodical we have extracted 
the following portion of a Paper by Mr. Andrews on Fungi, read 
before the Dublin Natural History Society, Dec. 14th, 1855 :— 
“So far back as the month of April, 1844, I recorded in this Society 
the discovery of the Morell (Morchella esculenta) by Simon Foot, Hsq., in 
the Pine-woods at Hollypark and at the Little Dargle, and at the time al- 
luded to the state of our knowledge of the Fungi of this country. Since 
then but little has been brought forward new in that branch of study. The 
specimens, among others, that I shall submit to you this evening are the 
different stages of growth of the Birch-tree Polyporus (Polyporus betulinus), 
which I do not find to have been hitherto recorded in any of the notices ~ 
on that section of the botany of this country. This fine and handsome 
species is of annual growth, assuming a rapid and large development in 
the autumn months on the decaying trunk of the Birch-tree. It is met 
with in the more secluded parts of Tore and Cromaglouin woods, in the 
neighbourhood of Killarney, where, on the huge trunk of a fallen Birch- 
tree, I obtained specimens measuring more than two feet across. The 
pileus is a pale reddish-brown or deep fawn-colour, occasionally spotted ” 
with a darker brown; flesh very thick and white; hymenium of the same 
substance as the pileus, and not separated from it. The Fungus is attached 
to the tree vertically by a short, thick, rather sessile stipes. The pileus is 
suberose or corky, extremely fleshy in the recent state, but of a dry and 
fibrous nature when preserved, and in this respect resembles Polyporus 
fomentarius, a species remarkable for making Amadou, and which Fungus 
is also found growing on the Birch in Cromaglouin wood. The Polyporus 
betulinus is considered of rather local occurrence both in England and 
Scotland, as well as another species of interest that I have obtained on the 
branches of the Birch (Stromatospheria elliptica). The Polyporus fomen- 
tarius, or real Amadou, is distributed in every region of the globe; and 
although met with on Oak, yet it is most generally seen on the Birch, the 
species in the tropics being identical with those of the temperate zones.” 
We beg to advert to some clerical or typographical errors in 
the notice of the ‘ Phytologist,’—a notice, by the bye, we are glad 
to see in the ‘Natural History Review.’ ‘Vaucheria Sessilis’ 
should be, we presume, ‘Vaucheria sessilis. ‘A Few Words on 
our Indigenous Barlaree’ should be ‘A Few Words on our 
Indigenous Barbaree ;’ also ‘Swiford’s Reigate Flora’ should 
be ‘ Luxford’s Reigate Flora.’ 

