330 Crossland : Fungus Foray at Rokeby. 



little round embracingf pasture, park, and woodland, commencing' 

 within lOO yards of the hotel. A full set of convenient hand 

 baskets were supplied by the host on ' spec ' of finding some 

 plunder. On crossing- the first field many ordinary pasture 

 species were straightway met with ; a tree-bordered trench on 

 rising ground at the far end of the field proved most prolific, 

 especially in micro species, on the fallen beech twigs and leaves 

 lodged in the hollow. When the wood was reached two of the 

 younger members scaled the rather high wall and had a ' dip in ' 

 to test the quality of the place for our purpose. It proved good, 

 and immediately pieces of half-rotten branches were handed over 

 the wall for inspection ; most of these were literally covered 

 with fungi of one kind or another, a good sign of the moist 

 nature of the ground. The wood was skirted until a suitable 

 corner was reached where the whole party, by the aid of 

 a friendly field-fence, easy to mount, climbed in. Near this 

 corner was a heap of moist rotting branches, very productive. 

 Many samples from these were deposited in the baskets for later 

 examination. A reference to a six inch Ord. Map showed this 

 (Mortham) wood to be rather extensive, covering between 22 and 

 23 acres, and situated on a piece of land washed on one side by the 

 Tees, on another by the Greta, and running to a point at the 

 ' meeting of the waters ' near the Dairy Bridge. The whole 

 wood, so far as we could cover it, proved to be an ideal place 

 for our purpose ; nearly every bit of stick picked up had some- 

 thing on it, some bits a good many things. Chlorospleniiim 

 cEruginomni was there in its full glory. There was an entire 

 absence of bracken. There was a sprinkling of Dog's Mercury, 

 scattered beds of Nettles, and here and there small beds of Aira 

 ccespitosa, the latter of which, along with a few slightly spongy 

 mossy places, clearly demonstrated the naturally moist character 

 of the wood, the very opposite of those crack-soil arid woods 

 one occasionally has the misfortune to drop into. It is a mixed 

 wood, the principal trees being Wych-elm, Oak, Beech and 

 Sycamore. It was found to be a veritable paradise for Mycenas 

 and Myxos. There were a few, but not many, of the larger 

 fleshy species. The time to return homeward with the spoils 

 arrived before half the area of this rich ground had been even 

 superficially gone over. Yet so many things had been collected 

 that one began to feel shy of taking more. The park was 

 entered by a private wood bridge, over the Greta, belonging to 

 Rokeby Hall, a corner of the park crossed, and exit made at the 

 lodge gate within 30 or 40 yards of the headquarters. Just 



Naturalist, 



