THE HISTORY OF MYCOLOGY IN ESSEX. 177
Mentzel. Pug. Icon. Cyathoides cyalthiforme, cinereum veluti
sericeum. Michel. Nov. Plant. Gen. 222. Tab. 102. fig 1 opt.
Seeding Cup Mushroom. In the fields about Camberwell, Surrey,
and Chipping-Ongar, Essex, plentifully.
John Hill's Flora Britannica is merely a rearrangement of
Ray's Synopsis and gives only three Essex records—Fungi
calyciformes seminiferi, Fungi Pezicae Plinii and Clavaria
clavaeformis simplicissimus.
The next reference to Essex fungi I have found is in Thomas
Martyn's Plantae Cantabrigienses 1763. In the list of Essex
plants we find Clavaria pistillaris from Bocking and Peziza
lentifera from Braintree—again both from Ray.
An unexpected Essex record occurs in Stephen Robson's
The British Flora published at York in 1777:—Lycoperdon
Tuber. L. 1653. Pubera. J.B. 3.849. B.376. R. 28. Truffle.
Trub. Globose, solid, muricate, without root. Underground
in woods. At Rushton in Northamptonshire; near Wetherby
in Yorkshire, and on Epping Forest in Essex.
Following this we have James Dickson's Plantarum
Cryptogamicarum Britanniae published in four fascicles, 1785-
1801. Among the fungi here described are two definitely
from Essex: Clavaria phacorhiza [Typhula] from a garden near
Walthamstow, T. F. Forster, and Peziza cuticulosa [Cyphella]
on decaying grasses near Walthamstow, B. M. Forster. Two
species are from Edward Forster, Junr., the first Hydnum
Erinaceum, the other Sphaeria pedunculata [Xylaria], which
according to a manuscript note by Robert Brown, was collected
"Among stubble, Marshhouse, Commonfield, Walthamstow,
Essex, by Edwd. Forstei, Jr."
It is worthy of comment that three brothers are given as
the collectors of the Essex fungi in Dickson's work.
We now reach a period when mycology began to be more
studied. The first British work to be wholly devoted to Fungi
is James Sowerby's "Coloured figures of English Fungi," which
started in monthly parts in 1797, and later twice a year until
1803. A supplement appeared irregularly from 1809-1815.21
Epping and Hainault Forests were Sowerby's main collecting
grounds and we find many Essex records.
21 See Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. Vol. pp. 167-170 (1933).