367 



FUNGUS FORAY AT MALTBY. 



C. CROSSLAND, F.L.S., 

 Halifax. 



(Continued from p. 340.) 



In Nor Wood, Roche Abbey Valley, a fine lot of the parasol 

 mushroom (Lepiota procera) was seen growing- in a distinct 

 ring among fallen larch-leaves. The beautiful, little chalk- 

 white Marasmius; epiphylliis was very common on dead 

 herbaceous stems in most of the woods. A thick piece of 

 dead thornwood, lying half in the water in Maltby Dike, 

 was specially tested for Rhizina Oocardi, the only kind of 

 wood upon which, and only under similar conditions, we have 

 hitherto found it; it was there all right enough, but not in 

 quantity. There being wood sanicle in Maltby Wood, its 

 parasitic rust— Puccinia sajiiculce — was looked for ; after search- 

 ing a short time and not seeing it, there was a suggestion to 

 try the plants growing on the path sides, and there it was. The 

 knotTgrass on the road sides in the village was also tried for its 

 parasitic rust — Uromyces polygoni— With almost a certainty of 

 finding it ; the first handful plucked was nearly smothered with 

 it ; it is mostly found^on plants growing in or near villages, or 

 about field gateways, and on the sides of field paths. Probably 

 the spores find more ready means of distribution in such situa- 

 tions than when their hosts grow in places less frequented by 

 animals and human beings. 



The foray was not all work and no play. On our Wednesday 

 wanderings we came across a signboard before which all pulled 

 up. It was conspicuously painted in black letters on a white 

 ground, and could almost have been read in the night-time. 

 It was at the entrance to a track at a wood corner leading to 

 a farmhouse. Evidently the farmer was determined not to be 

 troubled by tripper, tourist, or tramp. The sign read : — 



, No ROAD. No STABLING. 



No HOT WATER FOR TEA. 



Beware of the Bull dog. ■? 

 While we were admiring this emphatic signboard, a pert, 

 three-quarter-grown fox-terrier, with a black patch around his 

 rig-ht eye, barked away ' as savage as a razor-grinder' ; in his 

 wake there loomed up a sleepy, innocertt^ooking hound with 

 liver-coloured haunches and flabby, drooping, yellow-brown 

 lugs. One of our party, adrt^ittedlynqt well versed in 'doggy' 



1905 Deeember i. 



