Volume 11, Part 3, August 1997

CAPS OFF TO THE BMS

When the Mycological Society of America wasfounded in 1931, the British Mycological Societywas already 37 years old. Unlike MSA, whichsplintered from an academic group of theBotanical Society of America, the BritishMycological Society arose from a soci ety ofregional naturalists in Yorkshire. It is from thistradition that the BMS obtains a flavor that con-tinues today in the major contributions of knowl-edgeable amateurs.

The foray activities of the founding memberscontinue and have led to the establishment of asociety foray database that helps to make theBritish mycota one of the best known in theworld.

The past year marked the Centenary of theBritish Mycological Society. The full year ofactivities included forays , dinners, symposia,papers, the presidential address, and a once in alifetime exhibit of all aspects of fungi. Because Iwas fortunate to attend three of the centenaryevents, I thought it appropriate to review theevents of the BMS Centenary year so that in2031 MSA might follow the example!

Forays at Hereford and Huddersfield recalledthe predecessors and founding members of theBMS. The Woolhope Club at Hereford oftenmet at the Green Dragon Hotel, and BMS held adinner there in conjunction with the SpringForay. The Woolhope Club continues today andits officers were guests at the dinner. TheAutumn Foray was held in Huddersfield andSelby in Yorkshire. It was at the YorkshireNaturalists Union meeting at Huddersfield in1895 that the idea of a national mycologicalsociety was conceived, and the first meetingwas held the next year in Selby at theLondesborough Arms Hotel - a century later thesite of a BMS dinner. An overseas foray washeld at Belfort in eastern France. This event isone I would like to have attended becauseBelfort was the birthplace of my great grand-mother.

Again focusing on the Yorkshire origins, theUniversity of Sheffield was the site of an Aprilmeeting that featured symposia on "A Century ofMycology" and "Fungal Biodiversity." A specialfeature was a separate day featuring graduatestudent papers and posters in "Mycology of theFuture." A grand dinner was held in the CutlersHall of Sheffield with the Lord and LadyMayoress and the Master Cutler in attendance.

The mycological event of the century, Fungus100, took place in the Old Hall of the RoyalHorticultural Society in London in September.This event was planned to educate and heighten

the awareness of the general public about fungi.There were leaf-cutting ants , colorfully harvest-ing and transporting hot pink and white flowerpetals and green leaves, simulated raindrops tomake puffballs puff and birds nest "eggs" splash,fungi acting as vectors of root madness , tri-chomycete hosts lurking in an aquarium, dry rotrotting a doll house , yeasts fermenting in fullview, and nematode trappers trapping. Therewere woolens dyed delicate shades of color bypolypores, enzymes that remove the little fuzzyballs from sweaters, timbers from the Tudorship, Mary Rose, attacked by fungi, and fungifrom a Scythian tomb. There were edible fungifrom Japan, Thailand, and China, Ganodermatea, fungal mycoprotein made from Fusarium,edible as comycetes including truffles andCyttaria, and a famous chef to demonstrate hismu shroom recipes . There were computerdemonstrations on fungi on the Internet andidentification of poisonous fungi based on bestcharacters in a situation, demonstrations of PCRtechniques, use of a Shigometer to determineamount of decay in a log, fungal structures mag-nified by scanning electron microscopy, drawingof Laboulbeniales with a camera lucida, andpaper-making from fungal tissues. There wasbread making for children, a quiz for studentsabout the exhibits, and the awarding of prizes ina school poster competition on the theme FungalFriends and Foes. There were fungi on stampsand in paintings and photographs, the spectacu-lar Sowerby and Dillon Weston models, andbooks to weight many a suitcase. A wealth offungi miraculously collected daily by amateurmembers of the Society in a time of droughtserved as a lovely and important focal point inthe center of th e hall. If 125 separate exhibitswere not enough, there were films and popularlectures almost every hour of fungal extravagan-za. The incredible films of the Institute ofScientific Films (IWF), Goettingen, Germany,will be the subject of a newsletter article atanother time. Never have I learned more aboutfungi than in the three days I spent in the OldHall.

The Annual Business Meeting andPresidential Address by Professor John Webster,who re viewed the history of the BritishMycological Society, brought the Centenary Yearto a fitting close at Burlington House, headquar-ters of the Linnean Society of London. Notableamong the statistics of the business affairs of theSociety was the report of almost 2000 membersand an encouraging increase in student mem-bers. The membership of many mycologists

!II

from overseas localities indicates the markedsuccess that began with a handful of Yorkshirenaturalists a century ago.

The Centenary Year also brings enduring con-tributions. For example the celebration providedan opportunity for the BMS to focus on conser-vation with financial contributions to aid in habi-tat preservation in Scotland , Wales , andEngland . One project involves 'saving theWindsor hedgehogs ,' in this case those cuddlystipitate hydnums; another, the world 's firstcryptogamic sanctuary; yet another, input intothe planning in Wales of The Botanic Garden ofthe 21st Century to ensure a mycological compo-nent. Throughout 1996 Mycological Research,embellished with a gold badge 'Volume - 100 -Years,' provided Centenary Reviews on manyaspects of mycology to bring us up to date ontopics such as fungal research over the century inBritain, morphogenesis and morphology of cer-tain fungi, seed mycology, effects of gravity onbasidiomycete development, mycotoxins, sporedispersal, ecology of mycorrhizas, genetics, med-ical mycology, and taxonomy of several groups.These are fodder for teachers and textbook writ-ers.

As I return to the lab after a long holiday, takeoff my coat and BMS spore print scarf and drinkcoffee from my sold out, special issue centenarymug with spores on the inside lip, I say, 'Caps offto the BMS.'

Volume 11, Part 3, August 1997

The Mycological Society of Americacelebrates the occasion of the Centenary Year 1996 of the

British Mycological Society,and the contribution of the

British Mycological Society

to Mycology by recognizing the Societyas an honorary affiliated society, to be forever listed

on the rolls of the

Mycological Society of America.James Ginns, President; Mary Palm, President Elect ;

George Carroll, Vice President; Linda Kohn, Secretary;

Richard Howard, Treasurer; Donald Pfister, Past President

December 30, 1996

Meredith BlackwellDepartment of Botany

Louisiana State UniversityBaton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

Editor's no te: This article is taken fromInoculum, the MSA newsletter, and the figuredpanel was published in Mycologia 89(2)pl (1997).

BOOK REVIEW

Mushrooms and Toadstools Photoguide by P.Harding & A. Outen (1996). Pp .256, illus. inc.236 col. plates (Softcover). ISBN 0 00 470934 9.HarperCollins , GlasgowUK. Price £3.99.

Sadly, this little book does not live up to the highstandards we have come to expect from Collins.In a word, it is the victim of a too-rigid format,every page following the same formula of a7x4cm photograph, a paragraph of descriptionand brief comments on size, habitat, season, edi-bility and 'lookalikes'.

Patrick Harding writes in a clear and simplestyle with a minimum of technical language,though his use of complete sentences in thedescriptive paragraphs often sacrifices informa-tion to readability. Straightforward symbolickeys in the all-too-brief introduction are basedon gross morphology and spore-print colour.Latin names are conservative but usually accept-able. Agarics are followed by other basid-iomycetes and more conspicuous ascomycetes

with a percentage ratio of 65:25:10. The specieschoice is sensible rather than adventurous, asbefits an elementary guide.

We are familiar with the high quality of AlanOuten's field photographs (a few included are byPatrick Harding and Tony Lyon) but they are notat all well served here. Aesthetic appeal has oftenbeen compromised by mutilation to fit the tinyallotted space . Calocera viscosa appears side-ways-on and Ganoderma adspersum is upsidedown. Quality of reproduction is sometimes poorwith white appearing violet or green. The pictureon p. 57 clearly does not fit the species describedand, in a few others, shortcomings of colour andsize make it frankly impossible to tell.

I hope HarperCollins do not intend to replacetheir perfectly adequate 'Gem natural historypocket series' with 'photoguides' : I shall not bealone in considering this a retrograde step.

Alan Legg

..