282 



A /I Excursion to Topcliffc, Yorks 



Clieetham found some interesting mosses viz., Tortula sahulata 

 var. suhinermis, T. mutica, Pla^iothecium silvaticuni and 

 Amblystegucm fliwiatile all hy the Swale, also Hypnum aduncum 

 var. paternum in a clay-pit at Helperby. 



Mr. C. Crossland writes : — The mycologists did not arrive 

 in time to join the main party, but this mattered little; we 

 should soon have been left far behind, as we were bent 

 on a leisurely investigation of the mycological floras of the 

 places we visited. Six was our number. After finding lodg- 

 ings for the week-end, we, as a beginning, looked through 

 the old garden at the back of the house while lunch 

 was being prepared. Nine or ten species rewarded our short 

 search, two being parasitic on last year's ' shoots ' of the 

 gooseberry bushes ; their presence appeared to check the free 

 development of some of the buds at the internodes, but not the 

 terminal one. The American gooseberry mildew was carefully 

 looked for, but not found. The afternoon was spent in Braffer- 

 ton Wood, said to cover an area of 350 acres. The portion we 

 looked over exhibited little signs of its being a good fungus 

 wood, being rather dry and open, and devoid of fallen branches 

 and decaying trunks. The agent, who accompanied us, how- 

 ever, said that plenty of toadstools of all sorts came up in 

 September and October. There was a profusion of Anemone 

 nemorosa, and numerous plants of Paris quadrijolia. Being too 

 early for the Agaric crop, our attention was directed to ' smaller 

 fry.' We found a little fungus paradise in a moist field corner 

 between Brafferton Wood and the village. This consisted of 

 a small heap of decaying twigs, year-old nettle stems, and the 

 remains of a fine old Scotch thistle. Upwards of a dozen kinds 

 were found, no fewer than nine of which were living on the old 

 thistle, four of these being beautiful black moulds. The 

 necessary apparatus for working out micro-species having been 

 provided, a few hours' work was put in after the general meeting 

 was over. The members who went to Leckby Carr and other 

 places brought several interesting species, including Morchella 

 esculenta, which they reported as being plentiful. 



On the following day Myton was visited. On the way a 

 fir plantation was looked through, and Collyhia tenacella picked 

 up among the fallen cones and needles A good crop of Sclero- 

 tinia sclerotionim was found in a nettle bed near Myton Grange. 

 At Myton, a huge Polyporus sulphureus was cut down from a 

 white poplar ; the tree, so far, does not appear to have suftered 



Naturiihsc, 



