415 



FUNGUS FORAY AT CASTLE HOWARD. 



C. CROSSLAND, F.L.S. 



The twenty-second Yorkshire Fungns Foray (the nineteenth 

 annual) organised by the Union, was held at Castle Howard, 

 September i8th to 23rd. Castle Howard was a wise selection 

 on account of the great wealth of old woodland in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Permission to the Union to investigate the myco- 

 logical flora of this magnificent and extensive estate was 

 kindly and readily granted by the Earl of Carlisle. 



The district is classic ground from a botanical standpoinL 

 Dr. Spruce, the eminent botanist, (who investigated the moss 

 flora of the Pyrenees, and then for fifteen years braved the 

 hardships attending the exploration of the flora of the Amazon 

 and the Andes, so vividly portrayed in ' Notes of a Botanist 

 on the Amazon and Andes,' edited by his friend, Dr. Alfred 

 Russel Wallace), was a native of Ganthorpe, a little village near 

 Castle Howard. Here, and later at Welburn, his father kept 

 a boarding-school. As a youth, Spruce diligently studied the 

 plant life of this and the Malton District. By the way. Spruce 

 derived his first knowledge of, and love for mosses, from Samuel 

 Gibson, a well-known artizan-naturalist of Hebden Bridge. 



Our old and valued member, Mr. M. B. Slater, J. P., who 

 attended the foray on the Monday, has been a keen and con- 

 stant student of the mosses and hepatics of this locality, in 

 company at one time with Dr. Spruce, whom he often visited 

 during the doctor's sojourn at Welburn, and afterwards at 

 Coneysthorpe. 



This also is the district where Mr. Massee first took up the 

 study of fungi, during his residence at Bulmer. To him the 

 ground was familiar, and his visit pleasantly renewed his 

 former acquaintance with his old gathering grounds, where 

 several species new to the British flora were found by him, 

 years ago. 



The general meeting-room was the Guest House near the 

 Castle, and most suitable for our purpose ; but, unfortunately, 

 we had to billet at the village of Welburn, about a mile and a 

 half away. This reduced the time generally given to the 

 work-room, as we were unable to put in the usual hour before 

 breakfast. Dinner only was served at headquarters. 



A beginning was made on Saturday in the woods in the 



igog Dec. i. 



