4 THE ESSEX FUNGI AND HOW THEY SHOULD BE
we are compelled to accept things as they are, and return to our
subject.
Algae, inasmuch as Essex has a coast line, are within limit,
and might be recognised by examples of Bladder-wrack, some
Red-weeds (Florideae) and Ulva, accompanied by drawings, showing
details of structure and re-production. Desmids and Diatoms,
if there were only room enough, might occupy a square yard of
wall space in diagrams.
Lichens could not be summarily dismissed, yet I fear that I
am ignorant of the extent to which they are represented already.
There are specialities which would suggest themselves to a
collector, such as the Reindeer Moss, "Old-man's Beard,"
certain Cladonia, and Lichens which have been used in the Arts,
such as dye lichens, or in medicine, as Sticta pulmonaria and
Peltidea canina. Not forgetting Collema and Nostoc, or the necessary
illustrations of structure and fruit, of course including the wall
space.
Fungi have already more than their legitimate proportion
of space, although I should not be the traitor to confess it, and yet
there is something wanting, and that is the ocular demonstration
of the variety of the groups included within the general term
Fungi. Your ninety and nine visitors out of a hundred can get
no further in a mental definition than a "mushroom" and a
"toadstool," and these together, represent Fungi—" these and
nothing more." If "'Arry" brings his "'Arriet" into the museum
on Easter Monday he does it for a "lark," or out of curiosity.
He is not in the "pursuit of knowledge under difficulties;" he is
only running after "four ale" and noisy pleasure, mixed with a
little horseplay and reckless mischief. Supposing that for a brief
space of time, you let him forget the main business of his holiday,
admit him to the museum with a laugh, and let him out to think.
No harm will be done, and he may be educated a little against his
will. But—how is it to be done ? Not by Latin names in couples
fixed upon strange objects, but here and there by something he
can understand, when it is explained in plain English. One
thing he might see would be a group called "Fungi," either the
real thing or a picture, but at any rate an ocular demonstration,
that under the general name of Fungi, there are Toadstools,
Puffballs, hard Polypores, Peziza-cups, Morels, Dry-rot, Blue-
mould, "Candle-snuffs" Smuts, Rusts, and a number of parasites
which infest and destroy plants and animals; so that, if he
only gets a new idea of the meaning of one word, he will have