THE VICTORIAN NATURALIBT. 109 



FUNGI OF COUNTRY EAST OF MT. BAW-BAW. 

 By Henry Thos. Tisdall, F.L.S., Walhalla. 



In the President's address to the Field Naturalist's Club in 1888, 

 he expressed a hope that some one would undertake to delineate the 

 Victorian Fungi. In forwarding a first instalment of specimens ot: 

 those fungi, which are found in the neighbourhood of Walhalla and 

 the vicinity of the River Thompson, I am only endeavouring to fill 

 a want so publicly expressed. 



Fungi may be divided into two great classes, namely the Sporifera, 

 in which the spores are exposed, and the Sporidifera, which have the 

 spores, or more correctly, the sporidia, enclosed in cells called asci. 



In this paper I shall only deal with one tribe of the Sporifera, 

 the noble genus Agaricus. 



Dr. Badham, in his famous work on the edible fungi of Britain, 

 mentions upwards of 20 different species belonging to this tribe that 

 are fit for food, and Professor Berkeley says that at least one-tenth 

 of the Agarics are esculent, in other words, two hundred species may 

 be eaten. 



The great distinguishing feature of the Agaric is the way in which 

 the hymenium is spread over gill plates which line the under side of the 

 pileus. Before I proceed, I might explain that the hymenium is 

 composed of a thin membrane completely dotted over with quaternary 

 groups of spores; each spore is borne on the end of a slender stalk 

 or sterigma, and four of these sterigmata spring from a thicker body 

 called a basidium, which is in its turn fastened to the hymenium. 



Professor Berkeley defines the Agar acini thus, " Hymenium 

 plicate; radiating from a common centre: the main divisions often 

 connected by transverse processes, but not so as to form definite 

 pores." 



, The common edible mushroom, Agaricus Campestris, may be taken 

 as a fair type of the whole class. 



Unfortunately, I did not magnify the spores so as to determine 

 their color, before submitting them to Professor Cook, of London, 

 (to whom they were forwarded by Baron von Mueller), consequently 

 he was unable to place a few of the species accurately. 

 Agaricus (^Mycend) galericulatus. Frees. 



This pretty little plant I have only found in the dampest fern tree 

 guUeys, on decayed logs. It grows in clumps or tufts numbering 

 from five to ten: the pileus is cone-shaped, brown and shiny. The 

 lamellae grow from the margin, and are not fastened to the stem. 

 The stipe itself is hollow. Common in the month of June. 

 Agaricus (Lepiola) Glypeolarius. Frees. 



Found generally in well-wooded districts, quite solitary, so fond 

 is it of light and air that I have discovered specimens with a stem 



