The Beneficial and Injurious Influences of Fungi. 199 



of evidence is towards the former character. A rare species 

 of this group with a globose head (C. capitata) was found at 

 one of our forays two years ago. 



Some wonderful examples of Cordyceps often reaching to 

 six or eight inches in length are found in Australia and New 

 Zealand ; they are eaten by the Maoris as a bonne bouche and 

 are also collected and sold to visitors as curiosities. 



I trust the few examples I have given of beneficial and 

 injurious Fungi will suffice to show the important part Fungi 

 play in the economy of Nature, and that the study of Mycology 

 is worthy of our serious consideration. 



National legislation might be profitably directed to the 

 employment of universal measures for combating fungoid 

 plant-diseases, the individual efforts, however well applied, will 

 be nullified by careless neighbours as the spores are in most 

 cases windborne. Laws are provided for protecting man and 

 animals from infectious diseases and it is also essential that 

 the infection of our crops should be guarded against by : — 



(I.) Instruction by experts in the nature of plant diseases, 

 their appearances and easy recognition, methods of pre- 

 vention and remedies for the control, checking, or 

 extirpation of the destructive parasitic organisms. 

 (II.) The exhibition of affected plants in museums and edu- 

 cational centres. 

 (III). More stringent means for preventing the introduction 



of fresh diseases into new localities or countries. 

 (IV.) To inculcate the value of crop rotation, whereby the 

 continuity of the life-cycle of the fungus is broken. 

 (V.) Further study and investigation into the nature of 



resistent and non-resistent crops. 

 (VI.) The removal of complementary hosts in infected areas. 

 (VII.) Further experiments in the efficacy of spraying, pro- 

 tective to the host and destructive to the parasite. 

 (VIII.) The appointment of more mycologists, specially trained 

 in plant-pathology. 



Let me recommend to the delegates of Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Societies the encouragement of the study of Fungi by their 

 botanical members. Some previous botanical knowledge 

 is really necessary, before entering the field of Mycology, but 

 one is convinced they would find this an attractive and inter- 

 esting section, furnishing work at a time when most of the 

 flowering plants are at rest. To the microscopist, Fungi present 

 objects of great beauty and diversified forms. 



Full use should be made of the British Museum booklets 

 on Fungi and Mycetozoa, which are alone sufficient to enable 

 students to recognise very many species commonly found in 

 all districts. The drawing, painting and photographing of 



1917 June 1. 



