Crossland: Mycological Meeting at Sandsend. 23 
genus, but a remarkable exception may be given. The genus 
Mycena was represented by 15 out of a previous 40 already 
recorded, but besides the 15, seven others of this well defined 
and graceful group were discovered, all of which are additions 
to the flora of Mulgrave Woods; four being new to Britain, 
and three to Yorkshire; see below. 
One of the charms of field mycology is its uncertainties. 
The appearance of fungi is so uncertain that more surprises fall 
to the lot of a field mycologist than to most other outdoor 
students of nature. Of course, many fungi are always with us 
in their season, but even these may appear in abundance one 
season and sparingly another. We have yet to discover why 
this should be so; there must be some influence at work to 
bring about these phenomena, either in the fungus itself or its 
habitat. Doubtless many move their quarters when the 
pabulum upon which they have been living becomes exhausted 
so far as they are concerned, or they die down from other causes. 
Their shed spores can be easily spirited away by air currents, 
or carried by insects, or other agencies, to new localities. When 
we consider the millions upon millions of spores a single toad- 
stool, puff-ball, or other fungus produces, we can easily imagine 
the numerous chances they have of becoming established in 
fresh places, far or near ; further, each one of these vast multitudes 
of spores, although some are only about ;,4,, of an inch or less 
longest diameter, is endowed with its speck of life when shed 
from its parent, enabling it, under suitable conditions, to repro- 
duce its kind. The spores, or the mycelium they give rise to, 
may lie dormant a season or two, or the latter may continue to 
grow several years, spreading unseen beneath the surface of 
the ground, or inside dead wood, or among rotting leaf mould, 
and when a suitable time comes round, the mycelium (the real 
plant) puts forth its fruits, in the shape of toadstools, puff-balls, 
and other forms according to their race, occasionally in great 
abundance a season or two, then die down at that particular 
place. We have seen prolific erratic crops of this kind both in 
Mulgrave Woods and other places ; the following come to mind 
at the moment—AHygrophorus cossus, Eccilia atropuncta, 
Lactarius deliciosus, Mitrula violacea and Humana subhirsuta. 
A remark on the latter, taken from the Yorkshire Fungus 
Flora, p. 260, may be quoted :— Elland Park Wood (Halifax), 
May, 1896, in great quantity ; a patch of ground three or four 
yards in extent was so covered with the multitude of ascophores 
as to appear an almost unbroken bed of yellow. In 1897 the 
fungus was only sparingly scattered at the same spot, and during 
1898-9 disappeared altogether.’ In the meantime not the 
slightest discernible change in the conditions of the spot had 
taken place. 
A perusal of mycological records reveals the fact that 
1913 Jan. I. 
