Botanizing at Oakshott Heath. 279 



sheets of a Lysiniachia-looking plant which fills several of the 

 great bays and inlets. We unanimously pronounced it to be 

 L. nummularia. The patches were smothered with minute 

 yellow dots, which looked like the remains of blossoms of that 

 species. But when we got specimens we found them covered 

 with terminal spikes of unexpanded flowers, which on dis- 

 section proved by the united stamens and one-celled berry a 

 relationship to Androsgemum, and we soon determined the 

 plant to be Hypericum elodes, which Smith describes as never 

 opening its flowers except during sunshine. But the fungi 

 abounding everywhere on the shores of this lake were the most 

 distinctive and glorious features of the scene. To enumerate 

 them would be no small task. We named a considerable 

 number, basketed more than we could hope to carry, and saw 

 myriads that were beyond our knowledge. Dozens of species 

 that we brought home fell to pieces, and became offensive 

 before we could find time to examine them with a view to 

 determine the species. Of those recognized, in addition to 

 species already enumerated, we saw examples of Agaricus 

 rubescens, A. excelsus, A. clypteolarius in lovely rose and rufous 

 tints, A. granulosa more than usual mealy in appearance, A. 

 equestris, this also occurs in a hollow near where there has been 

 a great fire in the wood, on the way from Harbrook to the 

 engine house ; A. terreus ; the elegant violet coloured A. nudus 

 growing very large and the pileus dividing vertically, as if cut 

 with a knife from the circumference to the centre.; A. imbri- 

 catus, A. fusipes, A. laccatus in several shades, from coerulean 

 blue to grey and dusty brown ; A. leoninus, remarkably hand- 

 some, the pileus a brilliant orange red and large ; A. fascicu- 

 laris, a very toadstool-] ooking species, with rufous cap and 

 slender stem ; the ill-looking Goprinus alramentarius, and the 

 curious Paxillus involutus, with depressed pileus of a dull 

 brown colour. We looked for Agaricus longicaulis, but with- 

 out success. Of Boletus and Bovista the specimens were 

 extravagantly abundant, and on the shore, nearly opposite the 

 engine house, in front of the clump of holly, there was a group 

 of Boletus pmrpureus, sixteen in number, the smallest measuring 

 five inches across, the largest seven inches and a half. This 

 group was the grandest sight we had seen in the whole of the 

 journey. If the reader knows the species he will feel a 

 quickening of the pulse with sympathy for me, and will not 

 be surprised to learn that I was in such ecstacies that 

 friend thought he would have to hold me down, for I literally 

 danced with delight. Can you imagine that scene ? The 

 broad, black, still lake, looking blacker and stiller because of 

 the delicate rustling of the tall clumps of reed and sedge — the 

 grim and solemn pines as rigid as if cast in bronze, for there 



