Chapter IV.
The Fungi.
BY W. B. GROVE, B.A.
The district of which Birmingham is the centre is in some ways peculiarly interesting to a British Mycologist. It was the scene of the labours of two students of British Fungi who will always hold an honourable place in the history of the development of the science in this country—William Withering and Thomas Purton.
Withering was in his time (1741-1799) the foremost physician of this town. He lived for many years at Edgbaston Hall, a residence still situated among picturesque scenery just on the edge of the town, and then no doubt a wilder and more productive spot than now. Many species and varieties of Fungi new to Britain or new to science rewarded his constant researches in the park surrounding the hall, and some of the forms which he described still linger in this retreat. Packington Park, about ten miles from the town, is another locality frequently quoted by him; in fact by far the great majority of the species found by Withering himself came from these two places.
Withering enjoys the distinction of being one of the earliest authors on the British Flora, who devoted to the Fungi a space even decently comparable with that devoted to the Flowering plants. In his “Arrangement of British plants” (3rd edition), 1286 species of Phanerogams are recorded, and 566 of Fungi, which thus fill more than one-third as much space as their superiors in rank.
Thomas Purton was a surgeon of Alcester, a town about 18 miles from Birmingham. In his “Midland Flora” (1817-1821), he gives descriptions of over 400 species of Fungi, found chiefly in the neighbourhood of Alcester, especially in Oversley Wood and Ragley Park. He provides moreover excellent coloured engravings of 35 species. Since the whole number of Flowering Plants recorded by Purton from the Midlands is only 798, it will be seen that he surpasses Withering in devoting more than half as much space to the Fungi as to the Phanerogams.
Mrs. Russell, of Kenilworth, made, a few years since, a nearly exhaustive study of the Hymenomycetes of Kenilworth, Stoneleigh, and Warwick, and bequeathed to the British Museum her valuable series of over 300 coloured illustrations. But with this exception little has been done recently to elucidate the Fungi of the neighbourhood of this town, until the subject was taken up, within the last few years, by Mr. J. E. Bagnall and the writer. On reckoning up the number of species now known to occur in this district it will be found that they considerably exceed 900. It is probable that the district is as productive as any other in the smaller and microscopic kinds, but the larger species of Fungi are, with few exceptions, not to be found in any great abundance.
From want of sufficient material, it is not possible to treat this group successfully, as has been done with the Phanerogams, according to the counties. It will be preferable merely to string together short notices of a few of the more remarkable or uncommon kinds, according to the orders into which the class “Fungi” is divided. The names are those of Stevenson’s “Hymenomycetes Britannici,” so far as it is published, and of Cooke’s “Handbook” or “Grevillea” for the rest.