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The Museum Gazette 



for Agaricus campestvis and A. avvensis, and it is impossible to 

 name the stately long-stalked Lepiota procera better than the 

 " Parasol." So of many others. 



The attractions of the Fungal family, as affording material 

 for Nature-study, are manifold. 



They stimulate faculties of close observation in those who 

 collect them, by the great variety offered in the characters 

 by which they are named and grouped. 



They come for the most part at a time of year when the 

 rest of the vegetable world is comparatively at rest, and thus 

 add a zest to out-of-door rambles just when one is most 

 needed. Very many of their species are, when looked at, 

 singularly elegant and beautiful, both in form and colour, 

 whilst at the same time so unobtrusive that they are liable 

 to be entirely overlooked unless sought for. 



They illustrate very curious and interesting biological laws. 

 Many of them are content to remain entirely hidden under- 

 ground for nearly the whole year. Their structures which 

 are permanent are of insignificant size, and apparently quite 

 inadequate to the production of the large upgrowths which 

 spring from them. Although seemingly of soft substances 

 and produced with extreme rapidity, they can yet exert 

 great force, lifting stones, &c. They grow with unexampled 

 rapidity, and seem to prefer to grow in the dark. They form 

 no green substance. They exhibit most singular liabilities to 

 disappear from given localities for years, and then again to 

 come forth. They illustrate the importance of food-supply 

 in relation to the production of specific forms, many of them 

 being found solely in association with some special kind of 

 wood or dung. That they are all related, the general simi- 

 larity of large groups makes evident beyond doubt, yet their 

 different species are now very numerous and are apparently 

 quite permanent. 



Much more might easily be written as to suggestive 

 problems which fungals offer to the curious mind. We 

 may conclude by remarking that there can be no charge of 



