CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES, AA 
Societies Committee to attend and expound our views with regard to it. 
The fact that the Committee has selected this topic for debate evidently 
indicates that it considers that most of our Local Societies neglect the 
investigation of the Fungi occurring in their districts. But what is the 
cause of this neglect? Thousands of species are at hand, and abound in 
every district, but our British botanists generally omit them from their 
enumeration of the plants occurring in the various county floras, and if 
they are in a few instances included, the task has been delegated to some 
outsider who cannot possibly have that intimate local knowledge which is 
necessary for the production of a complete and exhaustive list. 
Why the study of our fungi has been so sadly neglected it is very hard 
to explain, because, unlike that of mosses and lichens, it is of immense 
importance to every individual. All our farmers and gardeners suffer 
immense losses annually, and I may mention incidentally that the Inter- 
national Phytological Commission in 1893 reported that the cereal rusts 
alone cost Prussia for that year 20,900,000/. A knowledge of this inter- 
esting group of plants also would place at the disposal of our people a 
great quantity of valuable nitrogenous food, which is at the present time 
allowed to fall into decay uncared for. It is only necessary to draw 
attention to these points to convince Local Societies that they should 
encourage the study of the fungi in their districts. 
In 1868 the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club inaugurated a series of 
autumnal forays, which were continued with some measure of success 
down to the year 1902, and these were copied by many of our leading 
Naturalists’ Clubs. But the devotion of a day or even of a week in the 
autumn will not elucidate the fungi occurring in a given area. To do so 
satisfactorily it is necessary to investigate them year in and year out, and 
to place them on exhibition from day to day. 
This exhibition should either be maintained in the Club Room or, 
better still, at the Local Museum, if the place possesses one, and should 
be open to the inspection of the general public. 
Of course members of the Local Societies would willingly aid in 
bringing in specimens for the exhibition, but in order to stimulate the 
general public, and possibly the members also, it might be advisable to 
otler prizes for the most varied or most correctly named specimens sent in 
during the course of the year. 
The Local Society should also annually prepare a list of the fungi, 
with the name of the finder, the exact habitat and locality, and encourage 
the general public to make accurate paintings, accompanied by accurate 
sections and microscopic details, if possible to one scale. The most con- 
venient way of exhibiting the larger fleshy fungi and plant diseases is to 
display specimens on large plates, whilst the smaller ones should be in- 
serted in tubes before being put on the plates. The label would give its 
correct scientific name, but the popular name, if it possessed one, should 
also be given, and an instructive note added. Thus : — 
Amanita mappa (Batsch.). Fr. Very poisonous. 
Hygrophorus psittacinus (Schaeff.). Parrakeet Mushroom. Edible. 
Delicious. 
Ezxoascus pruni (Fckl.). Pocket-plums. Prune back behind the point 
of infection. 
Two copies of the British Museum ‘Guide to Sowerby’s Models of 
