On the Fungi Grovnng in Mines. 47 



centre of the pileus ; these fibres join in one string, and are 

 fastened to the partly decayed roof The pileus was a pure 

 creamy white, flatfish, but the margin turned downward 

 and then inward, margin not even, but bulging in separate 

 lobe-like sections. In other specimens, the campanulate 

 form, with a fairly even edge, was common. The lamellae, 

 at first a beautiful light orange, afterwards becoming brown ; 

 the gills were decidedly forked, fleshy, shallow and separated. 

 These characteristics would place them amongst the genus 

 Cantharellus Fe. 



As I quite agree with the remarks made by our President 

 at the last meeting, namely, "That the main object of an 

 outlying Society, such as ours, is more the obtaining of facts 

 and placing them on record, than of merely theorising 

 concerning them," I am quite content, therefore, to state 

 such characteristics concerning fungi as T am in a position 

 to describe, leaving the responsibility of classification to such 

 veterans in science as Dr. Cooke or Professor Berkeley. 



To return to our cantharellus, the fibres connecting the 

 pileus with the timber of the roof do away with the use of 

 the stem, which is accordingly absent, and its place is shown 

 by a raised ring, similar in width and thickness to the 

 lamellge. The plant is generally solitary, but very often 

 three or four grow so close together as to overlap ; and, 

 in some instances, I discovered groups of several dozens 

 springing from bundles of fine dark intermixed fibres. 



A very curious hydnum was occasionally to be found 

 hanging from the beams by innumerable fine silky hairs 

 springing from all upper portions of the pileus, which 

 consists of a rough whitish floccose membrane. The 

 h^^menium is spread over spines, which are cylindrical, or 

 rather conical, very even, tapering towards the tops ; each 

 of which ends in a circular plane. These spines grow rather 

 crowded, and are of an oi-ange yellow colour. 



It might be supposed that at a thousand feet below the 

 surface seasons would cease to influence plants, but I found 

 that many fungi were either altogether absent, or their hard 

 dry remains only left to tell the tale. I was very anxious 

 to explore the lower and damper levels of the mine, so I 

 went down at midnight after Good Friday. In the sixth 

 and eighth levels I found many fungi that would not grow in 

 the dryer atmosphere of No. 3. I was particularly struck 

 with some lovely agarics growing in tufts from the decayed 



