Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/99

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BOTANY Polyides rotundus, Grev. Cruoriella Dubyi, Schmitz. Hildenbrandtia prototypus, Nardo. Melobesia membranacea, Lamour. corticiformis, Kuetz. Melobesia Corallinae, Crouan Lithophyllum Lenormandi, Rosan Corallina officinalis, L. rubens, L. corniculata, L. FUNGI It is difficult to compare the cryptogamic flora of one county with that of another, because cryptogamic botanists are few and the record of cryptogamic plants for all counties is very incomplete. Probably the Epping Forest district is one of the most thoroughly investigated of England. For many years a large party of members of the Essex Field Club have explored the Forest each autumn in search of fungi. Messrs/ English and Worthington Smith have also collected fungi in this county. In spite of these many workers, Dr. M. C. Cooke says that it may be taken for granted that the mycology of the Forest has been by no means exhausted. Altogether 406 species of Hymenomycetous fungi have been re- corded in Epping Forest. 1 This is a good record, as only 1,338 species are recorded as occurring in Great Britain. It is evident that Essex is not an unfavourable county for the development of fungi. Several species new to Britain have been first detected in Epping Forest. E. G. Varenne contributed a list of the cryptogamic plants in the neighbourhood of Kelvedon, 8 a part of Essex which is possibly more in character with the county generally than the Epping Forest. A short list of Ustilaginei and ./Ecidiomycetes was also contributed by M. C. Cooke.* Of these Delitschia insignis, Mont., and Sporodesmium pyriforme, Corda, are new to Britain. The following is a list of the Essex fungi, found mostly in the Epping Forest and in the neighbourhood of Kelvedon. A few were observed by myself in the neighbourhood of Colchester. Agaricus (Amanita) phalloides, Fr. vernus, Bull. mappa, Fr. muscarius, Fr. pantherinus, Fr. strobiliformis, Fr. excelsus, Fr. rubescens, Fr. spissus, Fr. nitidus, Fr. vaginatus, Fr. var. nivalis, Grev. strangulatus, Fr. Agaricus (Lepiota) procerus, Scop. rachodes, Vitt. excoriatus, Schaeff. acutesquamosus, Weinm. cristatus, A. & S. carcharias, Pers. granulosus, Batsch. (Armillaria) constrictus, Fr. melleus, Vahl. mucidus, Schrad. (Tricholoma) sejunctus, Sow. portentosus, Fr. resplendens, Fr. 1 The arrangement and nomenclature followed in this list is that of the Handbook of British Fungi, by M. C. Cooke (1871), and of the British Uredinett and Uiti/agiaete by Chas. B. Plowright (1889).

  • ' Hymenomycetal Fungi of Epping Forest,' by M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., Essex Naturafut,

iii. 248. 8 Essex NaturaKst, v. 2 1 .

  • Ibid. i. 1 84, and 'Recent Additions to the Fungi of Epping Forest,' by Geo. Massee, F.L.S., in

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