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British Mycological Society Exhibition
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Models of British Fungi
Exhibition held: (July - Sept. 1997)
The collection (previously displayed) at the BRLSI is a set of facsimiles modelled by Eileen Chattaway of Charmouth. They were amongst those exhibited at FUNGUS 100 and it is intended that this collection be built into a national reference collection. It is the aim of Dr. Tribe that it, or part of it, will be exhibited at suitable locations around the country on a regular basis, to promote the study of mycology.
Dr. Alan Rayner suggested the BRLSI might be a suitable place to launch the exhibition because of its association with the mycologist, Christopher Edmund Broome, and the general interest in fungi in the Bristol and Bath area.
Broome's extensive collection of fungi was bequeathed in 1886 to the British Museum but his herbarium and botanical library were left to the BRLSI. On display is Broome's copy of Sowerby's monumental work is on 'English Fungi', and the papers in the 'Journal of Botany' of the Linnaean Society referring to the earlier restoration work.
In a paper on 'The Sowerby Models' in 1996, Dr. Tribe described the restoration of Sowerby's models. He remarks on the strong resemblance of some of the models to Sowerby's drawings in his 'English Fungi'. The current exhibition includes an interactive display of sample illustrations from that work and photographs of the models remaining at the British Museum.
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Peziza vesiculosa reproduced from Sowery's English Fungi
Peziza vesiculosa Sowerby model No.187
Coprinus atramentarius Sowerby model No. 66
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Background:
A collection of models of British fungi was made by James Sowerby whilst he was issuing his 'English Fungi' (1796-1803). In the introduction to the Supplement to that work he explains, "I intend to finish models of the more particularly poisonous Fungi, and of those which are edible, to prevent, as far as possible, future mistakes, for the use of the public".
To achieve this aim he built an extension to his home to house the collection and made it open for public inspection every first and third Tuesday in each month from eleven until three o'clock.
After Sowerby's death his son, in 1831, offered the collection for sale to the British Museum. Although the Museum was originally reluctant the trustees did eventually acquire them in 1844 for the sum of £70. The Natural History Collections of the British Museum were all moved from Bloomsbury to Alfred Waterhouse's new building in South Kensington, opened to the public in 1881.
By 1888 Worthington George Smith found the models in "a very mutilated state". In many cases the original colours had changed, sometimes in quite unexpected ways. He was not very happy with the way they had been mounted, on sand-covered blocks surrounded by pieces of moss. He set about re-painting them and supplying each with more natural surroundings of dead branches, leaves, horse dung etc. as appropriate.
After restoration the models were put on permanent exhibition in the Botany Gallery but in 1940 the Botany Herbarium and Gallery were hit by incendiary bombs and it seems most of the models were lost.
On enquiry in 1983 Dr. Henry T. Tribe of the British Mycological Society was informed that nine boxes of models in need of restoration were present in the Cryptogamic Department of the Natural History Museum. Dr. Tribe thought they could form the nucleus of a national collection of models of larger fungi and proposed that the BMS hold a modelling competition, perhaps annually. This did not come about but a modellin workshop was held at Pershore in 1987.
When the BMS decided to hold a Grand Conversazione (FUNGUS 100) in 1996, its centenary year, Dr. Tribe contacted the Keeper of Botany at the BM and proposed that Sowerby's models be exhibited there. The BMS and museum jointly funded restoration work at the cost of £700.
Making Models of Fungi - Eileen Chattaway
In 1984 Dr. Henry T. Tribe wrote an article in the British Mycological Society Bulletin "Sowerby's Models and 'Sowerby Inspiration Models'" suggesting that the Society arrange a competition with prizes given for the modelling of toadstools and thereby start a National collection. This was something I could do and I made 5 or 6 models in Daz (a self- hardening clay), but nothing more was heard of the competition.
In 1987 the B.M.S. held a workshop where Dr. S. Diamandis from Greece demonstrated a technique of making a model by moulding a fungus in silicone rubber, cutting it through, extracting the toadstool, pinning the mould together and injecting resin with a hypodermic needle. This procedure was laborious. The stipe was cut off and cap and stipe moulded and cast separately then joined together. This method proved prohibitively expensive - and my workroom smelt like a glue-sniffers' paradise !
I then experimented with other methods of making facsimiles of toadstools. Although simple modelling is all right for some fungi, others have fine detail difficult to portray.
I tried making a mould by painting latex on to a fungus - e.g. Boletus (Xerocomus) badius - then casting in Plaster-of-Paris. This method worked for one or two species but mostly the mould was distorted by the weight of the plaster. Gills present a real problem.
I then tried Plaster-of-Paris mould with latex as the casting material on a small gilled fungus - i.e. Inocybe geophylla. I was delighted with this result, but this method too has its limitations. For colouring I have used water-colour paint, although I intend to try acrylic for some species.
The availability of toadstools is also quite a problem - sometimes only appearing once in ten years. Getting them from site to the workroom without distortion is a major problem. However, I intend to continue to extend my collection - I have yet to solve the problem of producing realistic looking spines - as in Hydnum repandum (Hedgehog Fungus) !
Below are the models on display. Click on the thumbnail image for a larger version (coming soon)
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Clavariadelphus pistillaris
The Giant Club occurs in woodlands, especially on calcareous soils under Beech woods, from late summer to autumn. It is rather rare and not edible.
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Mutinus caninus
The Dog Stinkhorn is a woodland species and by contrast with the Common Stinkhorn smells only slightly. It is rather less common.
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Phallus impudicus
The Common Stinkhorn, often smelt before it is seen. The spores are formed on the head in very smelly mucus attractive to flies, which eat off the mucus and disperse the spores. The Stinkhorn occurs in woodlands and also in parks and gardens from summer to autumn and is widespread and sometimes common.
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Mycena pura
A beautiful rose or lilac coloured fungus which grows in forest litter. It is quite common.
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Xerocomus badius
The Bay Bolete. Also edible and very good, though not quite in the same class as the Cep. Readily distinguished from the Cep in that the pores turn bluish-green when bruised.
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Amanita muscaria
The Fly Agaric, so called because pieces of the fungus soaked in milk were found to attract and stupefy flies. The fungus is poisonous and also hallucinogenic and has a long history in Siberian folklore. Found in woods, often associated with the roots of birch trees.
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Russula nigricans and Nyctalis asterophora
Russula nigricans, a very common Russula, is at first whitish but blackens with age. This
and occasionally other similar toadstools, may be parasitised by Nyctalis asterophora, a small fungus whose caps are covered with a mealy powder which represents microscopic resting spores (chlamydospores).
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Laccaria amethystina
The Amethyst Deceiver shows its striking lilac colour when it is damp; when dry it is a
brownish-buff colour. It is common on soil in woodlands, especially beechwoods, from
early summer to winter. Its close relative, the even more common L.laccata,(Laccaria
derives from the colour of lac) varies from tawny to yellowish, and is extremely variable and hence the name Deceiver. Both species are edible if well cooked.
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Scleroderma citrinum and
Xerocomus parasiticus
The Common Earthball. A harder fungus than the puffball, this Earthball is found
typically on light soils in woodlands and heaths from summer to autumn. The Earthball is parasitised, rather rarely, by Xerocomus parasiticus.
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Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca
The False Chanterelle. The gills are thin as in most agarics and not fold-like as in the
Chanterelle. It also grows in woods but typically in coniferous woods, and also on heaths. It is not edible.
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Aleuria aurantia
The Orange Peel Fungus. The large, irregular thin fruit bodies grow on the ground in woods and other places. A common fungus found from late summer until the beginning of winter.
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Sarcoscypha coccinea
Moss Cups or Scarlet Elf Cups. A striking cup fungus, typically found, not uncommonly, on damp, mossy fallen twigs and branches from winter to early spring. In recent years many Moss Cup collections have proved to be Sarcoscypha austriaca, which appears identical with the classical species S.coccinea but differs in certain microscopical characters.
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Lycoperdon perlatum
The Common Puffball. At first white to brownish with solid white flesh, the Puffball
matures to become a papery sac open at the tip which contains innumerable brown dusty spores. If the sac is pressed, spores emerge from the opening like a puff of smoke. It is common in woodlands and in pastures from summer to autumn. Puffballs are edible, but only when the flesh is young and white.
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Chlorosplenium aeruginascens
A small cup fungus of fallen branches and logs of deciduous trees whose mycelium imparts a striking green colouration to the wood. Such wood, 'green oak', is used in making decorative articles, including those known as 'Tunbridge ware'.
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Camarophyllus pratensis
The Meadow Waxcap, or Buff Cap, a fairly common species.
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Inocybe geophylla var. lilacina
A poisonous fungus, found singly or in groups on the soil of deciduous and coniferous woodlands from summer to autumn. The lilac variety is somewhat less common than the species which has a whitish cap and stem.
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Hygrocybe conica
One of the Waxcaps, agarics with characteristically waxy caps and stems. This is one of the more common species. With reduction in the principal waxcap habitat, unimproved grassland, the genus Hygrocybe is on the decline, and the British Mycological Society is currently running a waxcap-grassland survey.
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Clavulinopsis fusiformis
Golden Spindles. A club fungus found in woods and pastures and amongst grass in
heathland from summer to autumn. It is frequent to occasional and edible.
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Calocybe gambosa
(Tricholoma gambosum)
St. George's Mushroom, an edible and excellent fungus which typically fruits by St.
George's Day, 23 April, and is therefore a spring to summer species. It grows in grassland and also in woodland clearings and varies from occasional to locally frequent.
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Coprinus comatus
Shaggy Ink Cap or Lawyers Wig. When young, the cap is almost cylindrical but like
most Coprinus species the gills blacken and progressively dissolve from below into inky drops, when the cap becomes at first conical and eventually nearly flat. Edible and good before the gills turn black. Common in pastures and in grass by roadsides and over recently disturbed soil from late spring to autumn.
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Macrolepiota procera
The Parasol Mushroom. One of our largest agarics and a good edible fungus. It grows in pastures, clearings in woods, heaths and roadsides, appearing from summer to autumn. It is not particularly common overall, but can be locally frequent.
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Hygrocybe punicea
The Scarlet or Crimson Waxcap, a fairly large and beautifully coloured species, is now infrequent to rare, although earlier regarded as fairly common.
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Helvella lacunosa
The Black Helvella, another woodland species, is rather less frequent than the white species.
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Leotia lubrica
Jelly Babies. They grow in damp woods from late summer until autumn; in some locations they are frequent, in others only occasional.
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Helvella crispa
Called by Beatrix Potter the 'spluttered candle'. A curious white fungus, bearing the
spores over the convoluted upper surfaces. Found rather commonly in woodland in summer and autumn.
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Cantharellus cibarius
The Chantarelle, one of the very best of edible fungi. Occurs in deciduous woods from summer to autumn. It does not possess typical mushroom gills but irregularly branched folds. Probably less common than formerly, in part due to overpicking.
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Hygrocybe calyptraeformis
The Pink Waxcap, infrequent to rare. This species is poisonous.
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Tricholoma sulphureum
This agaric is unmistakable because of its sulphur yellow colour and strong smell, of coal-gas or tar. Not surprisingly, it is not edible. Found chiefly in deciduous woods from summer to autumn, but not common.
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Psilocybe semilanceata
Liberty Caps, so called from the resemblance of the very distinctive caps to helmets of historic French soldiers bringing liberty. The fungus grows on nutrient-rich grasslands and is frequent to common from late summer to autumn. Liberty Caps are hallucinogenic, sometimes with very distressing after effects.
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