THE HYMENOMYCETAL FUNGI OF EPPING FOREST. 249
Stevenson enumerates a total of 1,183, and from calculation based
upon the "Illustrations of British Fungi," the total cannot be less
than 1,300, so that of the gill-bearing fungi of the whole world a
proportion of not less than one-fourth have been found in Great
Britain. Considering the small size of our area, this proportion
must be regarded as remarkable, being no less than 1,300 out of a
total of 4,639.
We must now endeavour to analyse the 1,300 British species, so
as to discover how many of them could reasonably be expected to
occur in the Epping Forest district, for, be it remembered, we are
dealing with the Forest region, and not with other parts of Essex,
the major part of which are entirely unrecorded. Every mycologist
knows that there are some species of the group of Agaricini which
are found only in open pastures, whilst others flourish in woods,
some which are always local, and others widely distributed, some
which are so rarely found that their appearance may be years apart,
and some which have occurred once or twice in the past, and never
again. All these circumstances must be taken into account when
estimating the number of species likely to be found in any given
locality.
Having constructed a list for this present purpose, as near as the
materials at hand would permit, we find that the total of British
species, up to date, is 1,338. Now from these we must deduct 40
purely Scottish species, and 116 which are absolutely confined to
habitats not found in the Forest area, such as pastures, lawns,
gardens, conservatories, and similar unlikely places. Then, if we
add 257 for species so rare that they have only once been recorded,
or so local that they have not been found outside a very limited area,
or species resting on questionable evidence, we shall reduce the total
to 925 species, which it seems at all probable would ever occur in
a Southern forest area. Of this total there are 406 recorded for
Epping Forest with about a dozen named varieties. Now at first
sight this would appear to be a small proportion of the whole, but
there are two important features to be taken into account. First,
that the Forest is so exceedingly poor in coniferous trees, and a very
large number of the above 925 species have only been found
associated with fir woods. The second feature to be remem-
bered is that the Forest region has by no means been thoroughly
worked. No one has attempted a fungological exploration in
summer, no one is resident on the spot to determine the species,
S