Volume 1

Illustrations of British mycology, containing figures and description of the funguses of interest and novelty indigenous to Britain / By Mrs. T.J. Hussey.

  • Hussey, Thomas John, Mrs, active 1820-1877.
Date:
1847-1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of British mycology, containing figures and description of the funguses of interest and novelty indigenous to Britain / By Mrs. T.J. Hussey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/462
    give thirty or forty guineas for an adequate microscope, will find here, as well as in the yet unsettled questions as to the reproduction of Funguses, an ample field for their curiosity. Having supplied these lists for reference, this is not the place to enter into fuller details; they will be given where they apply to each subject, in the descriptive matter accompanying the plates. We will proceed to the mode of collecting and examining specimens, with a view to ascertaining the species to which they belong, and naming the precise individual; but it must be remembered that the present work does not pretend to give an entire Cryptogamic arrangement; being merely illustrative; the student must therefore be provided with vol. v. of the ‘ English Flora ’ of Sir J. E. Smith, (being vqI. ii. of Dr. Hooker’s ‘ British Flora ’).^ ON COLLECTING FUNGUSES. A basket is in the first place needful, and if the student should leave home without one, a profusion of lovely and rare objects will be certain to strew his path; in which case there are but two alternatives, to dissect on the spot, always an imperfect operation, or to carry away the spoil in hat or handkerchief, when on arrival at home, a heterogeneous mass of caps, stems, &c., presents itself—disjecta membra! who shall assign to each its proper parts ? We have known a fishing-basket turned to excellent account when fish were shy, but the best of the osier-woven family is a plate-basket or knife-basket, unlined, it should be about a foot and a half long by a foot wide, and six inches deep, with a partition length-wise, the handle should be made to fold down for the facility of slipping under a carriage seat, and it is more convenient for use without a lid; any green leaves will screen the contents; stiff fern-leaves are best to prevent specimens from injuring each other; place in this basket two tools, for taking up by the roots from the earth, or severing from bark of trees, equally efficacious, a long strong broad-bladed butchers’ knife! start not, gentle reader, and a wrenching chisel! after much experience we find there is nothing too deep or too tight not to give way to these potent engines; the chisel should have an oval handle. Having cut deeply round the stem of an Agaric, Boletus, &c., at a sufficient distance to ensure the volva, if it have one, being uninjured, and you will find the knife cut easily through turf, insert-the chisel, turn the ball * Drawn up by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, a hand-book, for which there is no substitute at present. And even if a much desiderated new arrangement of Funguses were completed and in the hands of the public, it would not chauge the nomenclature. c
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3