9+ 



Crosslaiid : T/ie S/iidy oj Fungi m YorksJiirc. 



West was cryptogamic secretary to the Union, 1879-80. His 

 lirst report was on the results of an excursion to Hebden Bridge 

 {' Nat.', August, 1879). Erelong, his increasing business of 

 <:hemist and druggist left him little time to give to field botany, 

 and he was compelled to drop fungi, but encouraged Soppitt 

 to continue. Although West found it necessary to drop this 

 ^:ection, he continued to study mosses, hepatics, lichens, and 

 algse ; these could easily be laid by and worked out as oppor- 

 tunity afforded. Eventually Mr. West became wholly engaged 

 in the teaching profession as Lecturer in Biology, etc., at the 

 City of Bradford Technical College. He and his son, Prof. 

 G. S. West, Birmingham University, are the best known autho- 

 rities on fresh water algae. Mr. West was Chairman of the 

 Union in 1899. 



At the meeting of the Leeds Naturalist Club and Scientific 

 Association, October, 1876, Mr. Thos. Hick delivered a lecture 

 on ' Mushrooms,' dealing with their structure and physiology. 

 A number of edible and poisonous species were exhibited in 

 illustration of the lecture. Mr. Hick continued his botanical 

 studies, obtained the degrees B.A., B.Sc, etc., and was appointed 

 Assistant Lecturer in Botany, under Prof. Williamson, at the 

 then Owen's College, Manchester, 1885, in succession to Mr. 

 Marshall Ward. He became proficient in paleo-botany. 



We m.ust take our thoughts back for a moment to the dim 

 past, when the Halifax Coal Measures were in process of forma- 

 tion on the surface. We have evidence that even at that 

 remote period fungi were at work. In 1878, Messrs. W. Cash and 

 T. Hick discovered traces of their presence in the shape of 

 fossilized spores, mycelium, etc. in these beds. They were 

 described and recorded in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire 

 Geological and Polytechnic Society (1879, PP- 115-122). The 

 two able authors generously inform us that the material and 

 ructions showing these traces of fossil fungi were found and cut 

 l)y the late James Binns, a Halifax quarryman, and a field 

 l)otanist. Further evidence of a similar nature was found by 

 Prof. WiUiamson, in, sections cut by the late James Spencer, 

 who long resided within a few hundred yards of our present 

 meeting place. Spencer was an ardent geologist and palaeon- 

 tologist. Both Spencer and Binns were well known to such 

 distinguished palaeo-botanists as the late Prof. Williamson, 

 Count Solms Laubach, and the late Dr. Hovelacque, for their 

 •exquisite micro preparations of fossil plants. 



Naturalist, 



