SIXTY YEARS OF BRITISH MYCOLOGY. 219
important stimulus to field collecting. Another important
organization was the Cryptogamic Society of Scotland, which
performed similar work in the North to that of the Woolhope in
the West. The first conference was held at Perth in 1875 and
has been continued annually since. These efforts were
emulated in a more humble way by other Societies, which
devoted one day, or half a day, yearly to a Fungus Foray, until
it became quite an ordinary occurrence for a local Field Club to
have its Fungus Excursions. Unfortunately, as death thinned
the ranks of the older and more experienced of Mycologists,
these meetings declined much in attendance and activity, and,
during the last ten years, some of them have ceased. One of
the most persistent in its adherence to its one-day Fungus
Foray is the Essex Field Club. And it is still matter of pride
to some of its members that during the course of time a goodly
number of Agarics have been discovered for the first time in
Britain within the limits of Epping Forest. It only requires
that the records of such societies as those of Hereford and Essex
should be consulted to prove from local lists that the counties
which have possessed organized Fungus Forays have obtained
a considerable advance over their more sluggish neighbours,
and can exhibit lists of Fungi, in addition to the ordinary
Flowering-plants of their locality, which will always stand as a
monument of their energy and zeal, unequalled in the reign of
any British Monarch but that of our Queen.
Another cause of the progress made in the study of the
larger Fungi may be found in the production of a cheap litera-
ture on the subject, such as was never seen before. In 1847 the
only volume on the Edible Fungi cost about a sovereign, after-
wards a book on the same subject could be had for about half-a-
crown. Moreover, for twenty years the Cryptogamic Botanists
patronised and supported, without pecuniary loss to the pro-
prietors, a quarterly journal [Grevillea] devoted solely to
Cryptogamic Botany, an event which has no parallel in the
history of this country, and proves that the number of students
in that department must have been at its highest about that
time.
Passing from the Hymenomycetal Fungi, and all or almost
all those of conspicuous size, we must turn to those which
require the use of the microscope for their discrimination and
determination. Here it would be well to distinguish two or
three large groups as a sample of the whole. If we take the