7 
in less degree. ‘This is the first recorded appearance of this Ustilago 
in Britain, and it is rare even on the Continent of Europe.” And 
Mr. Carleton Rea, B.C.L., M.A., read a note on “A very abnormal 
form of Agaricus arvensis Schaeff,” illustrated by a painting by Mrs. 
Rea. ‘The specimen was deposited on the exhibition table of fungi 
at the Victoria Institute, Worcester, in the autumn of 1902 bya 
person unknown. ‘The upper surface of the Pileus was normal, but 
the whole of the underside was covered with gills very labyri nthiform, 
poriform, anastomosing and daedalioid in character; the gills were 
very shallow, but the spores were normal. No trace ofa stem was 
extant, and the only explanation of this abnormal condition which 
he could offer was this: He presumed that the pileus was separated 
from the stem by somebody gathering mushrooms, or by some other 
animal agency, and this separation is easily effected as the flesh of 
the stem is not confluent with the flesh of the pileus. Did not the 
hymenial hyphz after the removal of the stem develop the hymenium 
on the whole of the under surface of the pileus, including that portion 
originally occupied by the stem, or did the vegetative hy phz become 
potential hymenial hyphe ? ‘This raised a broad question, as hitherto 
it had been considered that at some preceding stage the hyphe had 
been differentiated into hymenial and vegetative. Sports as a rule 
now-a-days are considered to give some indication of the ancestry 
of a species, and the present example probably shewed that the 
differentiation of the hyphae had only been recently acquired.” 
On Thursday, the 25th of September, the members drove from 
the Headquarters at 12 o’clock to Rotherwas, from whence a walk 
was taken through the woods to Dinedor Camp. In Rotherwas wood 
Dr. Plowright secured many examples of Rosellinia clavariae ul. 
and Eccilia atropuncta Pers., whilst other members collected fine 
specimens of Cortinarius (Phlegmacium) triumphans F r., Fygrop horus 
subradiatus var. lacmus Fr, and Clavaria stricta Pers. In the evening, 
at the Headquarters, Mr. R. H. Biffin, M.A., gave a very interesting 
lecture on “Some facts in the life history of Acrospeira mirabilis B. 
and Br.” (see p. 17); Miss A. Lorrain Smith read “Notes on a 
species of Stilbum ” (see p. 25), and a paper on “Lindroth’s classi- 
fication of the Uredinee of the Umbellifere ” (see p. 26), was read 
on behalf of Dr. C. B. Plowright. Hearty votes of thanks were then 
accorded to the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club for placing their 
Club Room and books at the disposal of the British Mycological 
Society, to Dr. H. Cecil Moore for the great trouble he had taken 
in arranging the details of the foray and obtaining the necessary 
permissions from landowners and tenants and for personally con- 
ducting them through their daily excursions, and to the landowners 
and tenants for their kind permission to visit their estates, and Dr. 
H. Cecil Moore was further requested to convey these resolutions to 
the proper persons, a task which he most kindly undertook to do. 
