
          Bolton's Icones Fungorum. Shear 305

The first volume is dated 1784, and the note at the end of the sixth
is dated January 5th, 1792.  A comparison of the plates in the manuscript
with those in the published work shows that all the species in
the printed volumes are found in the manuscript volumes and also a
few not published. In the manuscript the species illustrated are all on
separate plates, whereas in the printed volumes several small species,
sometimes four, are combined on a single plate. In the manuscript
the species illustrated are arranged in the order in which they were
collected and drawn. When they were transferred to the copper plates
for printing they were re-arranged and re-numbered. As the author
states, he made some of the drawings directly on the copper plates
from fresh specimens, but he also illustrated the species in the Icones.

A comparison of the published plates with the manuscript shows
that most of the illustrations were transferred from the manuscript
plates to the copper plates for the published illustrations. Opposite
each plate is a brief description or note regarding the specimen illustrated indicating where and when it was collected. In the “Advertisement” 
on the first page of fascicle 2 the following statement is made:

ADVERTISEMENT

The written part contains little more than a specifying of the place and time where
each species was gathered, and a few remarks upon such properties relating to them
as could not well be expressed by the Pencil; For when an Object in Natural History
is faithfully represented by Lines and Colours, I think it quite unnecessary to accompany
such a figure with a descriptive History in writing.

Halifax
Sept.r ye 20th
1786.

The following two quotations will give an idea of the character of
these notes.

Fasc. 3, p. 94, opposite pl. 94, MS.:

AGARICUS RUBEUS, HIST. 36
Red Agaric

This new and beutiful species I gathered in company with my Friend Mr. Paul
Shackleton the Entimologist, in a little Wood at Shibden Hall near Halifax October
ye 29th, 1786.

Gills in three series, transparent in some lights, and of a Ruby colour. Pileus looks
like Pillow Fustin made of dark red Cotton. Stem tough solid crooked and near the
root a little swell’d. No volva. I never met with it before or since.

Fasc. 3, p. 132, opposite pl. 132, MS. reads as follows:

SPHAERIA MORI HIST. 120. f. 1

Mulberry Sphaeria
Sph. fragiformis

This Sphaeria was brought me by Wm. Alexander M.D. a Most ingenious Botanist and steady Friend, who has accompanied me in many of my most arduous and
        