DRAWINGS OF BASIDIOMYCETES AT THE BIUT1SH MUSEUM. 37 



generations, implicitly accepted, and handed down uncorrected till 

 now. No blame can attach to anyone in these cases, except to the 

 student, who at length having the opportunity of studying the 

 living plants, neglects to avail himself of it. 



As there is a limit to the patience of even the most indulgent 

 editor, I have compressed the details of my treatment of P.gramini- 

 folius into a quarter of the space they originally filled. Hence 

 I have often given results only, instead of the processes which led to 

 these results. But I hope enough has been said to show that the 

 only clue to a ■■ critical'* local form is to be found in the field. 



Explanation of P 



Plate 317. — Typical form. Fig. 1, part of shoot resembling Irish " lon- 

 clritis"; 2, lower submerged leaves; 3, coriaceous floating leaves of shallow 

 water state; 4, fruiting spike ; all from one rooUtock. 



Plate 318. — Extremely divergent form. Fig. 1, flowering state ; 2, shallow 

 water state with coriaceous leaves ; 3, submerged stem ; 4, fruiting spike ; all 

 from one rootstock. 



Note. — All forms throughout Pidley Fen have a tendency to produce the 

 typical submerged leaves represented in Plate 317, fig. 2. 



DRAWINGS OP BASIDIOMYCETES AT THE BRITISH 



MUSEUM. 



By Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S. 



In the early spring of 1891, tbe Trustees of the British Museum, 

 on the recommendation of the Keeper of the Department of Botany, 

 commissioned me to make a series of water-colour drawings of the 

 whole of the British Basidiomycetes for the Public Gallery — the 

 Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes of Fries. In the new edition 

 of Berkeley's Outlines, recently compiled by me, more than two 

 thousand British species of Basidiomycetes are given, and these 

 I was commissioned to paint upon ninety-six. sheets of double 

 elephant drawing-paper. 



I at first thought that, owing to insufficiency of material, no 

 such series could possibly be prepared, but on looking through the 

 large collection of drawings preserved in the British Museum, 

 including all those which have been made by myself during the 

 last thirty years, and the large series made by the late Mrs. Russell, 

 together with the invaluable original drawings of fungi made by the 

 late Mr. James Sowerby, I found the task might be undertaken 

 with some prospect of success. This prospect was aided by the 

 kindness of various friends, who, upon application, lent a large 

 number of addition il original drawings of British Fungi. Mrs. 

 Lloyd Wynne, of Coed Coch, sent the whole of her sketches of 

 white-spored Agarics, mostly drawn at Coed Coch, and named by 

 the late Mr. Berkeley ; with the promise of other drawings as 

 required. Mr. William Phillips forwarded his entire collection of 

 original water-colour drawings of the British Hymenomycetes. Mr. 

 George Massee and Dr. Plowright lent all their drawings, and a 



