270 Botanizing at Oakshott Heath. 



Boletus has subsided in decay, aud looks like a wet leather sad- 

 dle or dilapidated knapsack. Here are lovely clusters of the lit- 

 tle green-beaded and stripe-stemmed Leotia lubrica, the elegant 

 dove-coloured Dcedalea quercinus on fragments of dead wood, 

 and an immense number of species of Agaric. But the grandest 

 funguses here are Boletus cdulis, which here grows to an 

 immense size, and the brilliantly coloured and very poisonous 

 B. luridus, with dark dull brown pileus, and vermilion and 

 orange stem and tubes, the last presenting a most elegant 

 reticulation when viewed through a pocket lens. AYe found 

 also B. luteiis, B. versipellis, and B. scaber, and one small 

 specimen of B. variegatus. Presently afterwards, at a point 

 where the fungi became less frequent, some grand clusters of 

 Agaricus longipes, their broad shields supported on slender 

 stems like lances, and at least half a dozen distinct degrees of 

 grace amongst them, and a brilliantly coloured fungus which we 

 took to be Boletus purpureus. 



For the sake of a change we came up out of the gully, and 

 encountered a herd of about twenty jet black pigs which had 

 stealthily followed us from the village expressly to ascertain 

 who we were, and what we were about. The leader, a splen- 

 did hog, promising to be fit for bacon at Christmas, advanced 

 to very close quarters, made a few sniffs and gruntings, and 

 then turned and led the herd back at a terrific gallop, satisfied 

 we supposed with their scrutiny, and not a little alarmed at the 

 ugliness of the people they had thus made acquaintance with. 

 To tell the truth, we were almost as much frightened as the 

 pigs, for when we went down into the gully there was not so 

 much animal life anywhere visible or within hearing as would 

 cover a . sixpence ; and after digging aud shouting, and 

 scrambling for half-an-hour, it was something of a surprise to 

 come face to face with these negroes, all their moist snouts 

 thrust forward, and the old baconer in advance, all eager to 

 see and smell the botanists and the prizes. As the pigs scam- 

 pered back, as if their tails had been singed, we trudged up the 

 cone to make our first halt upon its summit. Now we began to 

 feel we were on the heath ; no more blackberries, brakes, or 

 fungi ; the whole extent of the hill side, and as far on all hands 

 as could be seen, was a mingled mass of lichen, moss, dodder, 

 and heath. Instead of walking on coal or flint, or any other 

 hard or black material, the ground was almost snow white 

 with lichen, which covered the entire surface from the base to the 

 summit of the cone ; through the lichen sprang ling and heath 

 in such profusion that it was difficult to discover how the lichen 

 could make so distinct a feature in the colouring, especially as 

 much of the heath was still in bloom, and here and there made 

 lovely sheets of rose, purple, and lively red. 



