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THE STUDY OF FUNQl IN YORKSHIRE. 



(Being the Presidential Address delivered to the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union at Halifax, Dec. 14th, 1907). 



C. CROSSLAND, F.L.S. 



It is customary for each retiring President to give an address 

 at the end of his year of office bearing upon some branch of 

 Natural History to which he has given attention. This custom 

 marked out the theme of my discourse on the present occasion ; 

 therefore, the only point for me to decide was which branch of 

 the subject would be best to deal with. It occurred to me that 

 ' The History of the Study of Fungi in Yorkshire ' would be 

 appropriate, more so, perhaps, because it was a Halifax man — 

 James Bolton — who first wrote and published a British book 

 deahng solely with Fungi. 



My address involves no absorbing natural history problem . 

 but consists chiefly of historic details. After a short sketch of 

 the difficulties attending the study of this branch of natural 

 science, the details, including a few notes on the workers, will 

 be given in chronological sequence. 



Fungi may be roughly described as cellular cryptogam! c 

 plants, devoid of chlorophyll, all either saprophytes or parasites, 

 deriving their nutriment from a dead, or a living organic 

 matrix. The mycelium, or spawn, almost always hid from 

 view, may be considered to be the real plant ; while the 

 exterior structures are simply the fructification. The mycelium 

 generally consists of fine thread-like filaments, ramifying in all 

 directions among humus, rotting leaves, in dead wood, etc. 

 It also penetrates the living tissues of both plant and animal. 

 In some species it consists of tough strands of closely agglu- 

 tinated filaments, like thongs of leather, in others, like sheets of 

 wash-leather, hard knobs, etc. 



The organisms which are associated together under th:^ 

 common denomination of Fungi are the most protean and 

 polymorphic in the entire vegetable kingdom, and present 

 great difficulties in the way of generalisation.' * 



They are found wherever other vegetable, or animal 

 substances exist. The myriads of their spores, or reproductive 

 elements, ensure their distribution. In this country they are 

 commonest in old, mxoist woodlands, where decaying stumps, 



* Cooke, ' Introduction to the Study of Fungi,' p. 9. 



i-jo8 March i. 



