28 
III. 
FAUNA AND FLOEA OF NORFOLK. 
Part III. Fungi. 
Communicated by 
Charles B. Plowright, M.R.C.S. 
Read 29th October, 1872. 
At the present time more interest appears to be taken in Mycology 
than was the case some years ago, when, in point of fact, it 
languished in comparative neglect. From the time that James 
Sowerby published his magnificent work on English Fungi, at the 
end of the last century and the beginning of this, until within 
a comparatively recent period, fungologists in Norfolk have been 
few and far between ; nor, indeed, has the study of fungology 
been at all general throughout tlie kingdom. Now, however, we 
have evidence that it is coming more to the front, especially from 
what has been said and written during the last few years upon 
edible mushrooms. 
As a county, Norfolk has already left its mark in our myco- 
logical hand-books, from being the habitat of many rare and highly 
interesting species, hence the desirability of looking over our notes 
and seeing what species have at any past period found an abode 
here, and refreshing our memories as to those now met with in our 
woods and pastures. 
Sowerby visited Norfolk on-more than one occasion and mentions 
finding several species of fungi in the neighbourhood of Norwich. 
Dickson, in his first Fasciculus, published in 1 785, gives Gilling- 
ham and Earsham as the habitats of Geaster enliformis, a plant tlie 
sight of which now would gladden the heart of the most lethargic 
fungologist. 
Tliat the subject is difficult no one who has worked at it will 
dispute. One great cause of tliis is the evanescent nature of the 
