THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
97
been anticipated, bearing in mind the (for fungi!) favourable weather of
the past three months.
Tea was taken at the Headquarters at 4.30 o'clock, following which
a meeting of the Club was held, with Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, a past-
president, in the chair, the President not being with us. The Chairman
called upon the referees in turn for their reports on the day's yields.
Mr. Gould, after referring to the usual classification, now becoming
obsolescent, of the agarics by the various colours of their spores, remarked
on the great abundance that day of Amanita phalloides, while, on the other
hand, Armillaria mellea, usually plentiful and ubiquitous, was almost
entirely absent. One of the rarest forms met with was Hydnum erinaceum,
which had not been recorded for several years past. Although a large
quantity of material had been brought in for exhibition, there was not so
great a variety of forms as might have been expected.
Mr. Ramsbottom referred to certain recent cases of poisoning of
children, reported in the daily press, through eating the deadly Amanita
phalloides in mistake for mushrooms. He said that such a mistake was
to him inconceivable and he demonstrated by means of actual specimens
in the room the main points of difference-between the two forms. He
declared that Amanita phalloides was the only really deadly-poisonous
fungus in this country, that is to say, one that would kill : other poisonous
forms might cause serious derangement of the human system, but would
not be fatal. Mr. Ramsbottom also spoke of the grave damage caused
to trees by Armillaria mellea. He reported that he had listed about
200 species during the day.
Miss Lister said that her total "bag" of myxomycetes amounted to
22 species. She gave her reminiscences of some of the earlier fungus
forays which she had attended and compared the arrangements then
made with the far better organised forays of the present day, with the
greater facilities which they now afforded for students to learn the various
kinds met with.
Professor Buller, of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, who was
present as a visitor, remarked on what a delight it was to him to be in
a beech wood and to revive earlier memories. In Canada they lacked
beeches altogether, most of their forest trees were either conifers or poplars
of various sorts : also, the country went into cold storage each year from
mid-November to the end of March following. With the absence of
beeches, Canada lacked also the fungi associated with them, so that
many of the best-known British funguses were entirely missing: on the
other hand, they had many which we in England lacked: he estimated
that six out of ten of Canadian fungi occurred in Europe. They had some
two thousand species of agarics in Canada, including Hydnum coralloides,
a rarity which had turned up that day. Also, Amanita phalloides
occurs in Manitoba and is just as deadly there as here.
On the Chairman's motion, thanks were passed by acclamation to
the several conductors and referees for their services, and the meeting
terminated.