Cliccsnian : Christ )}ias Affer)ioo)C s Fitiis^us Rumble. 103 



me some hours that evening" trying- to run it down, but without 

 result. A specimen sent to our Mycolog-ical Secretary, Mr. C. 

 Crossland, broug^lit the news that it was Poria medulla-pan is, 

 but attacked by another fungais, probably Hypomyces 7-osellus, 

 parasitic o\\ it, and the authorities at Kew afterwards confirmed 

 his determination. 



Calocera viscosa, a rich, dark orange-coioured, coral-like 

 fung-us, was seen on a Fir tree stump. The black-spotted leaves 

 of the Sycamore revealed the presence of the Sycamore Blig-ht 

 {RJiytisma aeeriniim). The Saddle-flap or Razor-sharpener 

 {Polyponis sgiiamosus) was observed ; one specimen, higfh up in 

 an Ash tree, seemed to be quite three feet across. The next find 

 was a central-stemmed Polyponis. This was to me a rarity ; it 

 was g-rowing- in a crowded place and not well formed. Mr. 

 Crossland puts it down to P. briimalis. 



Armillaria mellea was not observed in the flesh, but several 

 dead trunks and uprooted trees which had been strang-led in its 

 deadly embrace were seen still bearing- the network of black- 

 brown, cord-like mycelium by which this destructive ag"aric is 

 disting-uished. Annillaria mellea is an edible fung-us, and makes 

 a passable dish ; in some seasons it is extremely plentiful, and 

 causes some annoyance and disg-ust to inexperienced Mycolog-ists 

 by the diff"erent aspects and forms it assumes. In other seasons 

 it is rarely seen ; for instance, at the week's Fung-us Foray last 

 September at Eg-ton Bridge only a single specimen was observed, 

 and that was growing- in the middle of the road in Mulg-rave 

 Woods (Whitby), unusual in place and unusual in its solitude, 

 as the g-eneral habit of the plant is densely Ccespitose.'"' 



My boy said he thought that when a tree became sickly or 

 decayed that fungi came to it and infested it. I tried to explain 

 to him that trees and plants had diseases like human beings, 

 and that botanists who studied these matters could enumerate 

 almost as many of the diseases of plants as doctors could tell 

 us of the number of complaints which aflFected mankind, and 

 that the diseases of plants were caused almost entirely by fungi. 

 As an example, I pointed to a lofty Birch tree near by, 

 * ornamented ' with numerous large specimens of the Birch 

 Polyponis {^Forties betulinus), and on nearing it we found several 

 on the ground which had dropped with the dead branches. The 

 mycelium was insidiously permeating the host plant under the 

 bark and literally sucking the victim's blood. Several of the 



*See Yorks. Fiing-us Flora Trans. 28, p. 24. — Eds. 



1903 April I. 



