4 Anniversary Address. 



reference to the supposed difficulties of the study, that like 

 all other difficulties they tend to disappear in proportion as 

 they are resolutely grappled with. A very little experience 

 enables one to determine within reasonable limits the place 

 that a new gilled Fungus ought to hold, and then by a 

 simple process of elimination among a comparatively small 

 number of neighbouring species, he succeeds at last in identi- 

 fying it. And it is not to be supposed that the characters 

 of the different species are not distinct. They are both dis- 

 tinct and constant, so that as soon as you become familiar 

 with a particular Fungus you never confound it with any 

 other, however great the general family likeness may be. 

 The descriptions may be somewhat similar, but the Fungi 

 themselves are not so. An untrained eye notices only two 

 or three different kinds in an afternoon's walk, where one 

 accustomed to observe them, will notice a hundred, and will 

 recognise them at once by their own distinct marks without 

 taking the trouble even to stoop down to examine them 

 more closely. One is of course the better of a little help at 

 h'rst, but after that he is able to go on fairly well by himself, 

 and with a constant increase of enthusiasm and interest. 



Then as to the difficulty arising from our being unable to 

 make a herbarium of the gilled Fungi ; it must be confessed 

 that that is a drawback. But a large number of people 

 pursue the study of phanerogamous botany with both plea- 

 sure and profit without constructing a herbarium, and with 

 the aid of a fairly good memory they find no difficulty in 

 doing so. The only substitute for a herbarium we can have 

 in the case of the larger Fungi is the use of coloured draw- 

 ings, of which a very fine and complete set is at present 

 being issued by Dr. M. C. Cooke of London. Happy the 

 man who can do his own drawings for himself, for he both 

 saves his pocket, and he is preparing a collection that is 

 more interesting and useful to him than anything he could 

 buy. Vie could not be better off though he could dry an 

 agaric like a grass. But most of us can neither draw nor 

 paint, and unfortunately illustrations of Fungi are scarce 

 and expensive, so that without access to a good Library one 



