Parks : Notes on California Fungi 



11 



miles on a bicycle, carrying a pack and a small rake. I have been 

 taken for a game poacher and a fish shooter, and in one place was 

 persistently hunted as a spy. 



Notes and records are made with all material taken. Copies 

 of the notes accompany the specimens, which are all sent to the 

 Department of Botany at Berkeley, California, and there finally 

 classified and preserved in the herbarium or dispatched to various 

 specialists. 



To say the least, the work is both arduous and intensely inter- 

 esting. One who would engage in such a survey must be pre- 

 pared to encounter and overcome many difficult situations. It is 

 not all rambling over pretty meadows and fine wood-bordered 

 roads. I have ridden many miles over the finest highways in the 

 -world, and also over miles of bad roads, railroad ties, and by-paths. 



In the fall of 1916 we were favored with some very early rains 

 that were sufficient to start the early fungi. It was, however, 

 well into November before operations began. This first trip was 

 made into the Santa Cruz Mountains, known to be very rich in 

 Boletes. The trip was taken with the idea of a general survey 

 of the district rather than any considerable amount of collecting. 

 A cold snap set in, and the result was that very little material was 

 visible in condition to be gathered. There was, however, evi- 

 dence of an amazing variety of Agarics as well as several species 

 of Boletes. A few specimens were taken, but nothing of special 

 interest was noted except the enormous quantities of a large white 

 Tricholoma. By way of extreme .contrast, this same region, for 

 the fall and winter of 1917-18, has been absolutely barren of this 

 species. In fact, this season, there was not a hundredth part of 

 the fungi seen in the previous year. 



However, there was one discovery of considerable interest, and 

 that was the finding of two individuals of an apparently new 

 Boletinus. There are no descriptions to fit it, and constant watch 

 is now kept for any recurrent plants. Nowhere else, search 

 as I would, could I discover another specimen. Growing among 

 dry, brown leaves, they are hard to distinguish, as the surface 

 of the pileus is chocolate-colored and very deeply cracked or 

 furrowed, and it measures some five to seven centimeters across. 



