FUNGUS-HUNTING IN SPRING. 
165 
ascertained previously from books to grow upon a certain 
host-plant is far more like to be successful than an indiscri¬ 
minate search for whatever may turn up. Of course it is 
only fully applicable to those which grow upon common 
plants, and if the fungus is not there we shall never discover 
it. But it must not be forgotten that the species of leaf-fungi 
are not equally abundant every year, and if we do not succeed 
one year we may the next. 
It was by this process that I at last succeeded, three years 
ago, in discovering Triphragmium ulmarice on the Meadow 
Sweet. But this is an autumn fungus, and my present 
purpose is to enumerate those species of the group which 
have been found in this neighbourhood in spring—let us say 
before the fourth week in May. I shall mention none but 
those which I have seen myself; a few of them have been 
gathered and sent to me by Mr. H. Hawkes and Mr. W. H. 
Wilkinson. 
To begin with the Cluster-cups. The commonest species, 
at this early date, is (Ecidium Jicarice, which is found in April 
and May on both Ranunculus repens and R. ficaria, most 
abundantly on the former. I have specimens from King’s 
Heath, King’s Norton, Northfield, Alvecliurch, Kingswood, 
Temple Balsall, Hampton, Killongley, Shustoke, Water Orton, 
Langley, and Hunnington. (E. lapsanee is the earliest I have 
found ; it occurred on Lapsana communis, at Blackwell, before 
the end of March. (E. urticce, on Urtica dioica, from Alve- 
cliurch, Fillongley,and Shustoke; Q£. violee, on Viola Riviniana, 
from Kingswood, Backington,and Sutton ; and (E.depauperam, 
on cultivated Violas, at Perry Barr and Sutton, all in May. 
Mr. Hawkes has sent me (E. tragopogonis, from near Great 
Barr, on Goat’s Beard. 
Of the Puccinias, P. adoxce is the earliest, having occurred 
on Adoxa moschatellina, near Blackwell, before the end of 
March ; P. anemones, at Middleton and Northfield, in April; 
P. cegopodii, from Shustoke and Erdington, in May. Mr. 
Hawkes has also sent it me from Northfield. I once found 
P. malvacearum, at Alvecliurch, on Malva sylvestris, in the first 
week of May ; it does not become abundant till June. 
P. coronata has occurred on sheaths of a species of Aira as 
early as the middle of February, but these specimens were, of 
course, those of the preceding year. The Uredo spores of 
P. graminis can also be occasionally met with before the 
middle of May; and Mr. Wilkinson has sent me those of 
P. luzulce, from Gnosall, in April. 
The curious jelly-like fungus, Podisoma juniperi, has 
occurred on Juniper trees at King’s Norton, and was sent to 
me by Mr. C. Pumplirey. 
