Reviews and Book Notices. 



Mushrooms Growing in a Smithy. — Forty years ag^o a 

 meadow near Barrow Head was noted for Mushrooms, and in 

 a blacksmith's shop in Fisher Place, which was built on a por- 

 tion of this meadow, Mushrooms have g-rown during- the last 

 twenty years. In 1901 the largest one of a dozen lifted up the 

 brick pavement. On nth September 1902 one appeared grow- 

 ing- between the joints of the brick paving-. It was then a 

 * button ' less than one inch in diameter. On the i8th it was 

 7|- inches in diameter. On i8th July 1903 one appeared between 

 the joint of a flag and the brick wall. On the 24th July it 

 measured six inches in diameter, and on the 27th ten inches, 

 with a stem two inches thick. In the meantime four others had 

 sprung up at the foot of the forge, and about two feet from the 

 hearth — a warm place. On Monday, the 20th, two of these 

 were three inches in diameter and the other two two inches. On 

 the 27th these had increased in size to six inches and five inches 

 respectively, and were still growing. They are edible Mush- 

 rooms. The blacksmith's assistant has eaten them and says he 

 wants more. — Harper Gavthorpe, Barrow-in-Furness. 



[This is possibly the Horse Mushroom [Agaricus arvensis) 

 which sometimes grows under abnormal conditions and is edible. 

 — Eds.] 



REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 



List of Yorkshire Lepidoptera, by Q. T. Porritt, F.L.S., F E S. 



Second Editon. 1904. 270 pag-es, cloth. A. Brown & Sons, 5, Farring^don 

 Avenue, E.C. 6s. 6d. (including^ the 'Supplement to the List of Yorkshire 

 Lepidoptera,' Trans. Y. N.U., Part 30. 2s. 6d. net. A. Brown & Sons). 



Time flies quickly with lepidopterists, who live so much in 

 the future, but I would scarcely have believed it twenty years 

 since Mr. Porritt published his ' List of Yorkshire Lepidoptera/ 

 of which we now have a second edition, including a supplement, 

 with fifty-three additional species, and a long list of insects that 

 have become or are becoming melanic. 



Yorkshire must have been well collected over prior to the 

 appearance of the first list, or a much greater number of addi- 

 tions would have been made. It is a very large county, with 

 much uncultivated land within its area, and in parts, such as the 

 Cleveland Hills, there must be many a mile where the foot of an 

 entomologist has never yet trod. Of the fifty-three species new 

 to Yorkshire in the list, only eleven are macro-lepidoptera, and 

 of these Mr. Porritt regards seven as being only 'casuals.' 

 Laphygma exigua is included in these seven, though no fewer 

 than eight specimens were taken one night near Keighley, , It 

 is an insect we know little about, but I expect it will be turned 



1904 April I. 



