Prominent Yorkshire Workers. 369 



has always been ready to impart, and whether on an excursion 

 of an important natural history society, or in the company of 

 the veriest beginner, he spares neither pains nor time to create 

 an interest in his questioners. In fact, the good he has done 

 in this way cannot be over-estimated. His desire to get the 

 benefit from a day's excursion is well known. 



The late H. T. Soppitt, whose collection the Union was able 

 to acquire, largely through Mr. Crossland's efforts, was a con- 

 stant companion for five or six years, and, ' by mutual con- 

 fidence and mutual aid,' these two were able to contribute much 

 that was new to Yorkshire. 



It is with his work amongst the fungi that Mr. Crossland's 

 name will be known to Yorkshire for all time. Amongst these 

 usually neglected forms workers were exceedingly few when he 

 took up their study. Not only was the question of their 

 identification a serious stumbling block, but the difficulty of 

 preservation had debarred many from paying attention to them. 

 He started his studies under circumstances which would have 

 caused many to have left the fungi severely alone ; but, plod- 

 ding on, he eventually got to know them well, and his acquain- 

 tance with Mr. George Massee, of Kew, and Mr. A. Clarke, of 

 Huddersfield, and the correspondence, meetings, and excursions 

 which ensued, gave him an extensive knowledge of matters 

 mycological. So much so that the growing number of 

 specimens sent to him for his opinion from all quarters of the 

 land is becoming rather burdensome. 



His publications form a very substantial and valuable 

 contribution to the mycological literature of Britain. Largely 

 through his efforts, the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union a few 

 years ago published the first county fungus flora ever issued. 

 This, with the co-operation of Mr. Massee, developed into a 

 substantial volume of nearly 400 pages, in which no fewer than 

 2626 species were recorded and classified, with full details of 

 distribution, etc. In connection with this, no one knows so 

 well as does the present writer, of the enormous amount of 

 detail work which Mr. Crossland accomplished — one task which 

 he voluntarily undertook being the entire re-writing of the 

 enormous manuscript in order to save the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union a little expense in the matter of printing. During the 

 compiling of the ' Fungus Flora,' no fewer than 16,700 records 

 were systematised. 



A few years ago, when the Halifax Scientific Society com- 



1910 Oct. I. 



