characters, Podaxon carcinomalis, no information has hitherto been received as to its condition when young, though adult specimens are not uncommon in collections. A very curious allied genus Xylopodium, occurs among General Hardwicke's collection, but without any details.

The species which I propose to describe are five in number, and they all worthy of record; the two latter being figured in the Dum-dum collection.

1. Agaricus (Lepiota) malleus; pileus nearly globose or mallet-shaped when young, then expanded and hemispherical, 3-9 inches across, white and silky spotted with dark brown scales of various breadth, especially towards the disc; fleshy; flesh white; stem 3-5 inches or more high, three quarters of an inch thick in the middle; attenuated upwards, bulbous below, stuffed with a delicate cottony substance, turning red when cut, externally brownish and nearly smooth; ring moderately broad, fixed near the top; gills pale yellowish, moderately broad, remote; attenuated behind. Just above the gills, the flesh of the pileus is very dark, though elsewhere white, the dark part being continuous with the outer coat of the stem; the tip of the stem is slightly sunk into the substance of the pileus.

Allied with some other exotic species to A. clypeolarius, but on a scale as large as that of A. procerus, like which, in all probability, it is esculent. We have, however, no information on the subject, nor do we know whether the Indian varieties of Agaricus campestris, like those of Italy, are unwholesome.

2. Agaricus (Lepiota) alliciens, bright yellow; pileus one and a half inch across, at first campanulate, then slightly expanded with a broad extremely-obtuse umbo, clothed with small pilose red-brown scales; margin striate when dry; stem three and a half inches high, two lines thick in the centre, slightly thickened below and attenuated above, flexuous, nearly smooth; gills thin, tinged with green; spores lemonshaped.

On the roof of a house at Masulipatam. It differs obviously from A. cepastipes in the brown persistent scales and lemonshaped spores.

3. Agaricus (Hebeloma) holophlebius; pileus at first campanulate, then expanded and sub-hemispherical with a broad obtuse umbo, above two inches across, pale umber, darker in the centre, deeply rivulose with little sinuous narrow depressions, fleshy; flesh white; stem three inches high, two lines thick in the centre, bulbous below, slightly attenuated above, pallid, white within, stuffed; gills rounded in front, shortly adnate, pinkish at first, then pale brown; spores brown, elliptic-oblong.

This is one of the most interesting Agarics with which I am acquainted. The whole pileus is veined. Agaricus phlebophorus, which belongs to a different sub-genus, is the only one with which I can compare it.

4. Podaxon carcinomalis, Fries.; Lycoperdon carcinomale, Linn. fil. (Figs. 1 to 4). At first cylindrical, obtuse, white with a few brown elongated adpressed scales, gradually becoming clavate above, with the scales standing out, then with a distinct elliptic head; stem nearly smooth, penetrating deeply, and surrounded within the thick peridium with the hymenium, which is at first porous like the crumb of a loaf, and then, as in a puff-ball, filled with dusty spores. Varying considerably in size, sometimes six inches or more high.

It occurs at the Cape of Good Hope, where it was originally found by Thunberg, and has lately been gathered by Dr. Welwitsch on the western coast of Africa. It is probably common in India. It is said to have been used for dressing cancerous sores in Africa, whence it derives its specific name. Our woodcut represents it in three stages of growth, together with a section of the plant while the hymenium is still young.

5. Phallus truncatus (Fig. 5), n.s. Volva dark brown, pointed below, where it gives off a strongish rootlet, truncate above, not lobed, but with the margin entire; stem three inches high, half an inch thick in the centre, bright sienna brown inclining to orange, porous, attenuated at the base, capped above with the connate receptacle, above three quarters of an inch high, which is slightly reticulated, broadly truncate at the apex. Sometimes the cap carries up with it a portion of the white inner membrane of the volva.

Nearly allied to Phallus aurantiacus, Montagne, but differing in the remarkably truncate apex and brown volva. This, with the foregoing species, is figured in General Hardwicke's drawings.

A VISIT TO GLEN CLOVA-ITS GEOLOGY AND

FERNS.

BY BERNARD HENRY WOODWARD.

CLOVA is a village situated in the extreme north-west of Forfarshire, the most picturesque part of that county, being in the midst of the Grampian mountains. It consists of a few small farm-houses and shepherds' cottages scattered along the glen from which it derives its name, and which is about ten miles in length and stretches from N. W. to S. E. The houses are clustered a little more thickly round the church, which stands about four miles from the head of the valley; and near it, at the foot of Ben Reid, are the ruins of Clova Castle, formerly inhabited by the Ogilvy family, who have owned the parish since 1445. The present proprietor, the Earl of Airlie, one of their descendants, resides at Cortachie Castle, which we passed just before entering this glen on our road from Kirriemuir, the nearest railway station, though fifteen miles distant.

There is a good carriage-road the whole length of the glen, running by the side of the South Esk river, a fine trout stream rising in Loch Esk, a small lake at the head of Glen Bachna-gairn, and flowing into the sea at Montrose. At the lower part of Clova Glen, the hills on each side are rounded, covered with fir-trees, and are about 1500 feet high, from which they gradually rise to upwards of 3000 feet above the sea level in the upper part, where they are quite bare of trees and very wild and precipitous. The valley widens considerably for the first four miles, and then draws in again. A considerable extent of the level ground at the bottom of the valley is ploughed, though the greater portion is left for pasturage, on which a good many Highland cattle are reared; which, together with the sheep that are turned loose to browse on the hills, afford a means of support to about 200 people, the present population of the parish. Some years ago, as is testified by the many ruined cottages in the glen, its inhabitants were three or four times as numerous, when they obtained a livelihood by the distillation of "mountain-dew"; but a more strict surveillance on the part of the excise officers stopped that lucrative pursuit. Last year the oat crop turned out very badly; when we were there, in the latter part of August, many of the fields were quite green, and in some no ears were visible.

But we ought not to have said level ground, for it is only level in comparison, being covered with rounded hillocks, "moraines," formed of the debris deposited by the glacier which once filled this glen. Where its surface has been

ploughed, the numerous boulders of granite, with which the glen and the valley of Strathmore to the south are strewn, have been used to build dykes to separate the fields. These boulders are chiefly of syenitic granite and gneiss, of which latter rock the hills at the top of the glen are composed, while those at the lower part are mica-slate.

We noticed on ascending the glen a strange murmur, quite distinct from the rushing and splashing of the South Esk in its numerous small falls and rapids, which seemed to pervade the whole air, continually growing louder as we advanced, and we also observed that the narrow, tortuous, silvery streaks running down the sides of the hills, became more frequent, and on a close approach found that these were small streamlets, which in their headlong course caused this murmuring sound with their miniature cascades, which made up by number what they wanted. in strength. A succession of falls from the summits to the feet of the hills, caused them to appear white in the distance, though here and there they formed small still pools, which were fringed with mosses, and sheltered by rocks; on their sides were growing luxuriantly the delicate Oak fern, Polypodium dryopteris, together with the Beech fern, P. phegopteris, and the Brittle Bladder fern, Cystopteris fragilis.

Clova Glen separates at the north-west end into two narrower but wilder glens, that to the left being called Glen Dole, and the one to the right Bach-na-gairn. There is a bad carriage-road up the latter for four miles to a shooting-box, and beyond that a bridle-road leading over the hills and down Glen Muick to Balmoral. At the head of this glen is Loch Esk, where the South Esk river has its source, and forms a fine waterfall over sixty feet in height just below the loch. The scenery all along is very grand, surpassing the famed Spital of Glenshee.

Near the loch, which is on the borders of an extensive deer-forest covering sixty square miles of country, are a number of fine larch and spruce trees, planted some fourteen years ago, to afford shelter to the deer. Craig Ought, the hill at the commencement of this glen, which separates it from Glen Dole, is extremely precipitous on this side, and at its base is an immense quantity of rock, that has been thrown down in the course of years by the disintegrating action of frost. Many of the fractures being quite fresh, we had a good opportunity for inspecting the nature of the rock, which consisted principally of felstone, porphyry, and syenite; the latter varying very much in texture, some parts being extremely finegrained, while others contained very large crystals of hornblende. In some the quartz was almost wholly absent, and in