Crossland : The Study of Fungi lu Yorkshire. 83 



species require special search. Doubtless further reasons why 

 this group has been so much neglected will suggest themselves. 

 These difficulties were seen by pioneer workers, and perhaps in 

 greater force, when so little was knowm about fungi. In 1788, 

 Bolton writes : — ' Much confusion has long prevailed in this 

 genus of plants, chiefly owing to the brief, or obscure descrip- 

 tions which have been given of them. ; for their parts are so 

 iew, that every one ought to be regarded with the greatest 

 care, with all that is singular and peculiar to its circumstances.' 

 Few as the characters were, and are, Bolton suggested more 

 than one hundred points it was possible to observe in one or 

 other of the then known toadstools. He appears to have pos- 

 sessed a marvellous insight into these uninviting plants. 



So far as I can learn, the oldest Yorkshire record of a fungus 

 is Geoglossttm difforme, Hampole Wood, near Hutton Pagnall : 

 Mr. Stonehouse, 1650. (Lee's' Fl. W.R., p. 731). 



In 1672, Dr. Martin Lister, one of our oldest pioneers in 

 several branches of science, had a paper on ' An odd kind o " 

 Mushroom,' in the ' Phil. Trans.' (p. 5116). This he found in 

 plenty in Marton Woods, under Pinno Moor, in Craven, i8th 

 August, 1672. Bolton refers this to Agaricus piperatus = 

 Ladarius piperatus. In 1675, (' Phil. Trans.', p. 225), Dr. 

 Lister contributes a paper on ' The Flowers and Seed of Mush- 

 rooms,' as instanced in Fungus porosus crassus magnus, Ye,ry 

 frequent in August under hedges, and in the middle of the moors 

 in many places in Yorkshire ; he also mentions another which, 

 when cut, changes its colour to deep purple or blue. 



In 1693 (' Phil. Trans.', p. 554), Sir Tancred Robinson, a 

 Yorkshireman, refers to ' Tuher terrae ' or earth tuber. Mr. 

 Massee considers the author to be dealing with a fungus, which, 

 from the figure, is undoubtedly what we now call Tuher cesiivum 

 Vitt., our best edible truffle. 



There is an interval of eighty years before we find any 

 further mention of Yorkshire Fungi, and this is in the Catalogue 

 of Halifax Plants, prepared by James Bolton, for Watson's 

 History of Halifax, 1775. It includes 55 species of Fungi. 



We next come to Bolton's ' Llistory of Fungusses Growing 

 about Halifax,' the first volume of which was published January 

 1st, 1788. Volume II. followed the same year. Volume III. 

 December 1789, and Supplement, December 1791. This work 

 was published under the patronage of the Duke of Gainsborough, 

 .and was the first British publication exclusively devoted to 



.1908 March i. 



