42 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, 
British Fungi’ should be cut up and pasted on cards ; these make instruc- 
tive labels for those species to which they apply, and should be pinned 
out on the table in front of the plate containing the specimens. During 
the winter the exhibition would consist principally of wood-destroying 
fungi and moulds, and as many of the former are of a hard woody texture 
they can easily be displayed for some time, and sections of various trees 
showing their destructive influence on the wood can be exhibited along- 
side. In the spring and early summer the Fungi inducing various plant- 
diseases can be exhibited, accompanied by a note as to their treatment, 
and then in the autumn we have the abundant harvest of the year. To 
further popularise the study, short papers should be given to the members 
and the general public, and the arrangement of the groups into which 
this vast family of plants is divided should be explained, so that all may 
be easily conversant with the terms employed in describing these plants 
For many of the systematic works and text-books plunge at once im 
medias res without explaining the nature of the classification adopted 
or the meaning of the technical terms used. 
Up to this point we have presumed that the Local Society possessed a 
member or members capable of determining the different species of fungi 
sent in from time to time, or that the Local Curator was competent to 
discharge that function. But if the Local Society have no members who 
are interested in this branch of botany, then we consider that the Local 
Society should persuade some member or members to take up the study of 
this neglected group. A botanist would find no difficulty in the study, as 
the orders and genera are very clearly defined, and are almost more easily 
determined than in the case of our flowering plants. And to ensure 
rapid progress in the study it would be well for those members to join and 
attend the annual meetings of the British Mycological Society. This 
Society holds a week’s fungus foray every year in different parts of 
Britain, generally on the invitation of some Local Society. The speci- 
mens collected from day to day are named and placed out on exhibition, 
and ample time is allowed to the members to study them and to compare 
them with the descriptions in books. 
Such exhibitions as we have advocated have been held for portions of 
the year both at Haslemere and Worcester with great success. The exhi- 
bitions have been very popular, and have diffused a pretty general know- 
ledge of the subject. This I have proved in the case of the Worcestershire 
Naturalists’ Club, where attention is paid to the study of fungi at all 
their meetings during the year, for the members easily follow a paper on 
the subject which other Local Societies that I have ventured to address 
have acknowledged to be beyond their comprehension. 
Mr. H. N. Dixon (Northamptonshire Natural History Society and 
Field Club) explained that the collection of hand-coloured photographs 
exhibited in the ante-room was made by Mr. Albert Wallis, of Kettering, 
during the autumn of 1906 and the foliowing months. It was shown 
at a meeting of the Northants Natural History Society, and he (the 
speaker), on hearing that the subject of the systematic study of Fungi 
would be introduced at this Conference, asked Mr. Wallis to allow the 
collection to be exhibited. He would be glad of suggestions by which 
such a collection might be made more complete and accurate for such 
a purpose as Mr. Carleton Rea had in view. He suggested the sending of 
