CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON'S FUNGUS RAMBLE. 



W. N. CHEESMAN, 

 Selby. 



After a hearty Christmas dinner, I reversed the old adaj^e 

 by deciding- to ' walk a mile ' instead of having- a ' rest awhile.' 

 So, shouldering- my vasculum and donning- my strong- boots, I 

 set off" for Stayner Wood, once part of Selby Abbey's possessions. 

 In 1257 Sir Richard de Berlay, Knt., quit-claimed the Park of 

 Stayner to Selby Abbey, and the Commissioners' valuation of 

 1540 runs: 'Item ther is a wod called Stayner pke set with 

 yong- okes & some tymber trees cont xxvi acres the herbag-e 

 wherof ys worth by est yerely xv^ ' It is about a mile from 

 the town, and is now used as a g-ame preserve. 



One of my boys wished to accompany me, and the desired 

 permission was g-iven. As we went along- I tried to interest the 

 boy by telling- him that many years ago there was a subterranean 

 passage (tradition so states) from Selby Abbey to Stayner Wood, 

 by means of which men could elude their pursuers. This was 

 in the old times when all agarics would be called by the good 

 old-fashioned name of 'toadstools,' instead of the 1,500 names 

 by which British species are distinguished at present. On 

 approaching the wood, a grass field, which in September was 

 aglow with yellow, red, and pure white Hygrophori, was drawn 

 a blank, except for a few surviving puff-balls [Lycoperdon 

 gemmatnni and L. pyrifoniic), which still possessed their 

 characteristics for amusing my companion. The first inlook 

 to the wood was not promising ; a thick covering of dead 

 bracken was strongly in evidence, and not the least sign of 

 a fungus in sight. I was ruminating on the wine and dessert 

 I had forfeited that afternoon, when my lad came running up 

 with something in each hand — in one was a piece of rotten 

 stump, and on it a lovely little white, cup-shaped fungus about 

 one-eighth of an inch diameter [Dusyscypha virghiea), and in the 

 other a larch twig with another like gem, but with a bright 

 orange-coloured disc and white margin {D. Calycina). We then 

 commenced the search in earnest. The old stump was covered 

 with the white Dasyscypha, and all the larch twigs on the ground 

 bore some of the orange ones. It appears that the mycelium 

 of this little fungus is very destructive to the larch and other 

 conifers, especially when growing in a damp soil. We found it 



1903 April I. 



