THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



211 



But we must walk on to the wood. Arrived there we see how sad the 

 change which has come over it. Instead of summer beauty we see autumn 

 desolateness. However, we are in no mood for fretting, but proceed to dig 

 for chrysalides, and search for coleoptera, several specimens of which we 

 secure and consign to our bottle. Here on this piece of wet bark are a num- 

 ber of white spots, which look very much as if they were drops of spilt cream. 

 This is a species of micro-fungus known as Trichia chrysosperma, and we 

 notice mauy others about of both this and kindred species ; in fact autumn 

 is a good time for collecting both the larger and the smaller fungi. We find 

 these micro -fungi on various substances, such as dead twigs, dead stems of 

 wild carrot and other umbelliferse, dead fern stems, wet bark, &c, &c. Here 

 is a white species of Stilbum on this piece of decayed wood, and being a 

 common kind it is known as Stilbum vulgare. In this genus the stem is 

 lengthened and composed of long threads, which are compacted together 

 most of the way up, but looser at the top so that the fungus has a club- 

 shaped appearance. Another species of Stilbum, known as Stilbum tormento- 

 sum, is parasitic on certain species of Trichia, a genus just alluded to. 



It would be very interesting to collect some specimens of micro-fungi for 

 examination, but the falling rain warns us to make the best of our way home- 

 ward, and we must therefore leave the micro-fungi till our next ramble. As 

 we return homewards we notice that gnats are flying about in numbers 

 among the falling drops. How curious it is they escape harm in the midst 

 of the descending rain, one drop of which we might suppose would be suffi- 

 cient to cripple a gnat, if not to kill it outright, but they play about quite 

 merrily amidst the showers. 

 Cambridge. 



THE SYNONYMY OF C2ENOBIA RUFA, HAW * 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 



I perfectly understood the reason of publication of Messrs. Eobson and 

 Gardner's list, and that it professes simply to contain " the name of each 

 species in ordinary use in Britain," &c, but I do not forget that Newman, 

 in his " British Moths," uses rufa s and that for many years I have known it 

 by that name, and I did not suppose that they wished to perpetuate a blunder 

 simply by taking other people's references, and I thought it advisable to 

 point the mistake out. I did not challenge Mr. Eobson with the idea that 

 most people used despecta, and in spite of the fear of wounding their- suscep- 



* See Young Naturalist for June, page 117. 



