Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/102

 A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE years after his time Mr. J. Harrison took up the subject. His records were confirmed in the first instance by Mr. Worthington G. Smith and afterwards for several seasons by Mr. W. B. Grove of Birmingham, who also revised Abbot's list of fungi in terms of modern nomenclature. At that time the modern list was of almost equal length with that of Abbot's, allowance being made for microscopic forms which Mr. Hamson did not collect. Mr. E. M. Langley of Bedford has also been a collector of fungi for several years ; the initials 'E.M.L.' indicate that the specimens were found by Mr. Langley and examined by Mr. Hamson. The initials ' W.B.G.' and ' W.G.S.' signify that the specimens were seen and named by Mr. Grove and Mr. Worthington Smith respectively. Those to which no initials are attached or are followed by such remarks as 'com- mon ' are on the authority of Mr. Hamson alone. A list of the recent finds was revised by Mr. W. B. Grove, read by him before the Birming- ham Natural History and Philosophical Society, 10 April 1894, and published in the Journal of that society, vol. i. No. 13. The fairly well established records number about 266 so far, but many others have been found though doubtfully recorded, and some which have the repu- tation of growing in the county have not been seen by the author. Mr. Grove's notes on Abbot's Fungus Flora are set out at length in the Midland Naturalist, xvi. (1893), 212, 235. It will be sufficient to state here that according to the identifications, which Mr. Grove has very carefully traced, thirty-eight species of Agaricus found by Abbot have been rediscovered, together with seventy-eight fresh records ; but sixteen of Abbot's species have not been since met with or only doubt- fully. Abbot gives five Coprini, and they have all been found again. He gives Bolbitius titubans, but the modern record is B. hydrophilus. Of his four species of Cortinarius only one, hinnuleus, is in the modern record. Gomphidius viscidus survives from Abbot's time, as does Paxillus involutus ; but, singular to say, P. atrotomentosus, so common in recent years, is not in his list. Of Hygrophorus he gives five species, all re- discovered with seven additions. He records Lactarius torm'mosus and piperatus. The latter is not in the modern list, which contains eleven in all. He records only Russula nigricans of that genus ; Cantharellus cibarius and C. retirugus, but not aurantiacus, which is very common ; and seven species of Marasmius, of which the first five constitute the modern records, but M. Hudsoni and M. epiphyllus have not been confirmed. Lentinus tigrinus and lepideus are now frequent, but Abbot found only L. cochleatus. His two species of Panus have not since been noticed, but Lenzites Jlac- cida is known at Ampthill together with L. betulina. Abbot gives only four Boleti, of which piperatus is not in the modern list. Out of eleven Polypori three, viz. varius, lucidus and intybaceus have not been since met with. He gives a much longer list of the Pezizce than that below. The comparison might be pursued further with regard to many of the other families and genera ; but most of the common forms mentioned by Abbot have been rediscovered. A considerable number of his records can however be only doubtfully recognized. It is interesting to note 62