250 THE HYMENOMYCETAL FUNGI OF EPPING FOREST,
and the lists already made up have been compiled from isolated
excursions at long distances apart. Hence it may reasonably
be inferred that the Forest Fungi have still been but imperfectly
ascertained, so that we may yet hope to find very many more of
the species already recorded in Britain from other places. It would
be satisfactory if we could compare the Epping list, not with
the whole of England and Wales, but with such places as the
Forest of Dean and the New Forest. Unfortunately the Forest of
Dean cannot compete, for it has only been worked during the past
two unfavourable years, and the New Forest but little more, so that
we cannot fairly set the three forest regions against each other. All
that we can do is to place the Forest list side by side with the
published lists of counties, or parts of counties, such as Leicester-
shire, West Yorkshire, and Herefordshire. For Leicestershire we
find a total of 228 species; for West Yorkshire a recorded total of
359 species; and, unfortunately, the Herefordshire list, though
nearly ready, is not yet published.2 The total of Hertfordshire lists
is only 176, and all the Agaricini we have recorded for the New
Forest is 169. Hence, then, of all these lists (Herefordshire
excepted) the Epping Forest list still holds the lead, being 47 more
than West Yorkshire, and considerably more than double that of
Hertfordshire. Let this suffice for a comparative survey.
A more interesting phase of the subject may possibly be presented
by noticing some of the novelties of the Epping Forest Cryptogamic
Flora, still confining ourselves to the group known as Agaricini, and
taking no note of Boletus, Hydnum, Clavaria, and the other genera
which complete the Hymenomycetes.
Of the large genus Agaricus, the true Agarics, a very fair list is
presented, although of course the pastoral species are absent. The
subgenus Amanita, in which the base of the stem is girt by a volva,
which in the first instance covers the whole plant, is well represented.
The well known bright red Fly-Agaric (A. muscarius) is a good type
of this subgenus; of course it is found in the Forest, but is not
eaten, except by slugs and Russians. Nevertheless, during a recent
foray in the south, a gentleman who protested that it looked too
nice not to be good, persisted in nibbling one, declaring it to be by
no means unpleasant or warm, but rather nutty, and yet no one else
followed his example. The inhabitants of some of the frozen regions
2 It has since been issued in the "Flora of Herefordshire."