OF THE FUNGI. 
117 
season ; at no period, other circumstances being favourable, 
need the collector fear to return home from his excursions 
empty-handed. 
His outfit is comprised in a few words : 
1. A bag, or rather knapsack, the back and front of 
which are kept apart by two or three pieces of stout mill- 
board — these same pieces dividing the interior into separate 
divisions. The use of this knapsack is for the large thick 
specimens — the Agarics (Plate xxiv.), Helvellids (Plate 
xix. 98), and Lycoperdaceas (Plates xix. 99, xx.), also 
pieces of wood on which minute Fungi have fixed them- 
selves. 
2. An old book, in which to carry leaves and other thin 
parts of plants ; the habitats of Puccinise, Lecythese, &c. 
An india-rubber ring will keep the whole together. 
3. A supply of chip and pill boxes, and small wide- 
mouthed bottles. These are all useful for the transport 
of the more delicate Fungi. 
4. Paper for wrapping up the objects. 
5. A strong sharp knife. 
Armed with these, and taking care to keep a good look- 
out among trees and bushes, hedges and palings, the 
collector may fairly expect to reap the reward of his zeal 
in a well-filled knapsack. So strangely, indeed, do the 
Fungi vary in form and size, that his eyes must be at the 
same time both telescope and microscope. They must not 
only be able to embrace, from a distance, the outline of the 
great Bovista, but they must peer among dead leaves and 
decayed fragments of wood, and be able to detect the 
faint traces which betray the presence of an Aregma or a 
Triphragmium (Plate xxi. 102, 103). Every tree stem 
must be diligently searched, and careful glances thrown 
on the herbaceous plants around him : every broken limb 
and rotting bough lying in his path should be lifted up 
and examined above and below ; for it is on these, that 
Sphasria (Plate xxi. 104), and Asterosporium (Plate xxn. 
105), and a host of other curious forms delight to grow. 
