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THE MANUSCRIPT OF JAMES BOLTON’S ICONES
FUNGORUM CIRCA HALIFAX
SPONTE NASCENTIUM

By C. L. SHEAR

The Library of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently
purchased from an old bookseller in Zurich, Switzerland, what proves
to be the original manuscript notes and drawings upon which the
author, James Bolton, based his work, entitled, An History of Fungusses
growing about Halifax (England), 4 volumes, 182 copper plates, Halifax,
1788-91.

This manuscript consists of six folio volumes bound in boards with
morocco back. This is apparently the original binding and is very well
preserved. The paper is heavy hand-made with rough surface very
suitable for water-colour illustrations. The volumes contain 244 watercolour plates representing the plants mostly in their natural size with
brief remarks on the page opposite each illustration. The first fasciculus
contains the following preface in Bolton’s hand dated 1784:

PREFACE*

The Parish of Halifax and its Neighbourhood, consisting wholely of Hills and
valleys, and abounding with Watersprings and Rivulets, deep dark Glenns, rocky
Precipices, Large moors of Moss and Heath, Bushy Bogs, and steep and Rocky
Woods, with Fields, Meadows, and Pasture Grounds, of every aspect and of every
Soil, Is thereby rendered so rich in its Vegetable productions that it may without
impropriety be termed a Natural Botanic Garden. But in no Class of Plants more
deservedly so than in the Cryptogamia, and of these in particular the Fungii; There
is not perhaps in this or any other Kingdom, a spot of like extent, productive of so
vast variety. Consequently there are many species which are new or unknown to
the Botanic World, and as nothing was created by the all Wise Author of Nature but
for some Great and Good end, (were we acquainted with their uses and their virtues)
Therefore every attempt to Illustrate their History, by investigating and ascertaining
their species, must, if done from propper motives, be esteemed Laudible. An attempt
of this kind I have had in view for a number of years, have kept an observing eye
upon them at all seasons, and have from time to time made likenesses in Drawing
from such as I collected, in which Work I have all along been scrupulously exact in
getting a just representation of each in the various stages of its growth, from its first
springing up to its maturity or Decay, and from these sketches partly, and partly from
the plants themselves, have I this summer made up this first fasciculus with a view
of Laying it at the Feet of the greatest and best Judge, and the noblest and most
generous encorager of Natural History now alive in Great Britain, If it is fortunate
enough to obtain you Graces approbation, it may be succeeded Annualy by three
more Fasciculi of equal bulk, which would take in all the Fungii of this neighbourhood
both such as are, and such as are not known, To execute such a work well, and

* Capitalisation and spelling are as in the original.
        