io5 



Guide to the Fungi and Mycetozoa of 

 the New Forest, 



By J. F. Rayner, F.R.H.S. 



PREFACE. 



he first edition of this List, issued in 1904, comprised 560 



1 Fungi and 11 Mycetozoa ; since then 133 Fungi and 39 

 Mycetozoa have been recorded, bringing the total numbers up 

 to 693 and 50 respectively. In addition, habitats and many fresh 

 localities are now included ; the meanings of the botanical names 

 are given, showing how apt and characteristic very many of them 

 are ; definitions of the divisions and sub-divisions in which Fungi 

 are classified are inserted in their proper places, the classification 

 and nomenclature being revised according to the most recently 

 accepted ideas ; distinguishing features of species are appended 

 when they can be expressed briefly ; frequency is estimated in all 

 cases , and edibility or otherwise is noted. 



It is hoped that these particulars will facilitate the study of 

 these fascinating organisms in this incomparable hunting-ground, 

 and lead to many new records. It should, however, be pointed out 

 that these additional details are confined to the Basidiomycetes, 

 this great and important class including all or nearly all the kinds 

 that attract the beginner and the non-botanical — exigencies of space 

 prohibit their extension to the remaining classes. But the student 

 will in any case require much further information before he will be 

 in a position to identify many species or become acquainted with 

 their nature and affinities. Fortunately we now possess a handy 

 text-book that will meet all his requirements, in Massee's British 

 Fungi (Routledge, 7/6). For the Mycetozoa all that is needed will 

 be found in Lister's Guide (3d., post free 4jd., British Museum, 

 South Kensington). Nevertheless, it is hoped that the details given 

 in this List will make it helpful as a pocket companion in rambles 

 in the Forest ; indeed, as the kinds which prevail there are, in the 

 great majority of cases, found in other districts, it may even claim 

 a wider utility. 



Organised investigation of the fungus-flora of the New Forest 

 began in 1887, when the Hampshire Field Club, at the instance of 

 the Rev. W. L. W. Eyre, m.a., Rector of Swarraton, who has done 

 so much for the mycology of his own part of the county, held the 

 first of their annual fungus forays. In 1899 the British Mycological 

 Society visited our great woodland for a six days' search. Since 

 then the local scientific societies have taken up the enquiry con- 

 tinuously, and individual work has been done by the present writer. 

 Some of the leading authorities in the country — Dr. M. C. Cooke, 

 m.a., a.l.s., m.v.h., Mr. George Massee, f.l.s., Mr. Carleton Rea, 

 B.C.L., m.a., Hon. Secretary of the British Mycological Society, the 

 late Dr. Plowright, and others — have taken part in these meetings ; 



