558 REV. J. M. DU TOUT ON A REMARKABLE APPEARANCE OF FUNGI. 
IY. 
ON A REMARKABLE APPEARANCE OF FUNGI, 
Of two species, in a Field on tiie Ryston Estate, near 
Downiiam, in West Norfolk, which had been until very 
recently under regular cultivation. 
By Rev. J. M. Du Port, M.A. 
Read 28th November, 1893. 
The subject, to which this paper refers, partakes somewhat of the 
nature of ancient history, but the last few seasons have been so 
unpropitious for the development of fungi, especially of the larger 
sorts, that in the absence of any more recent subjects of interest 
in the domain of Mycology, I venture to offer these remarks as 
the record of an unusual phenomenon, and of one of which I have 
received no perfectly satisfactory explanation. 
Four years ago, in 1889, there was a succession of dry and hot 
days in August, and this weather continued generally into 
September, with the exception of two days, on which rain fell 
heavily : all this was very unpropitious for the growth of fungi. 
But in October there were many days of gentle warm rain, 
culminating in a fall of nearly an inch on the 16th of that month 
in the district about Downham. Fungi of all kinds had hitherto 
been very scarce, but on the 18th Mr. Pratt, of Ryston Hall, 
called to tell me of a most copious growth, which had just sprung 
up in a recently formed plantation of Willows on his estate. We 
went together to examine this unexpected and. plentiful develop- 
ment ; the ground was literally covered with these fungi, so that 
one could scarcely put a foot down without crushing four or five of 
these “toadstools.” Toadstools they undoubtedly were; whitish 
on the top, covered with a prodigious quantity of a glutinous 
substance, which almost poured from off them ; they varied in sizo 
from one to three inches ; the gills were very pale, and studded 
