Crossland : The Study of Fangl in Yorkshire. 91 



Huddersfield, Ma^^ 7th, Huddersfield. Halifax, Wakefield, 

 Heckmondwike, Leeds, and Norland were represented. Results 

 were published in a series of ' The Naturalist,' which ,unfor- 

 tunately, had a run of only three years — 1864-1867. This was 

 again revived in August, 1875, as a ' New Series,' under the able 

 joint editorship of C. P. Hobkirk and G. T. Porritt, afterwards 

 by W. Denison Roebuck. It is still flourishing, and is likely 

 to so continue. The Wakefield Society were the first to record 

 fungi in the New Series, next came Goole, then Bradford. 



At the 15th Annual Meeting, held at Battyford, near 

 Mirfield, sixteen species of fungi, among other things, were 

 collected. Now the era of renewed activity among Yorkshire 

 Fungi opens. 



At the Pontefract Meeting of the W.R.C.N.S., held on Easter 

 Monday, 1877, it was decided to reconstitute the Society, 

 change the name to the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and 

 inaugurate a wider sphere of interest. Provision was made 

 for the admission of members not attached to any local Society, 

 and sections were formed for the several branches of natural 

 history. Efforts were made to promote the study of what had 

 hitherto been the ' neglected orders,' and among them, the 

 fungi. The members who interested themselves in this branch 

 were Mr. George Brook, Huddersfield ; Dr. H. Franklin 

 Parsons, Goole ; Rev. W. Fowler, Liversedge ; Messrs. Thos. 

 Hick, Leeds ; W. West, Bradford ; and W. N. Cheesman, 

 Selby. The Rev. W. Fowler was unanimously elected President 

 under the new arrangement, thus being first President of the 

 Union as at present constituted. Mr. W. Denison Roebuck, who 

 had been joint Secretary of the W.R.C.N.S., was appointed 

 General Secretary. During the course of the meeting Dr. Par- 

 sons reiterated the advice put forth by the President with respect 

 to giving more attention to the ' neglected orders,' and pointed 

 out the necessity of obtaining perfect specimens, and of making 

 accurate memoranda of localities, and specimens brought to 

 the meetings. After this, records of observations of fungi, 

 made art the Union Excursions, became pretty frequent. They 

 were principally by Dr. Parsons until 1879, "^^^^ t)y W\ West, 

 Rev. W. Fowler, G. Massee and H. T. Soppitt until 1893. 



Mr. Hobkirk records eighteen species in his valuable book : — 

 ' Huddersfield : its History and Natural History,' published in 

 t868. These are all parasitic, the author remarking ' the other 

 tribes have not been studied in this neighbourhood.' He 



1908 March i. 



