| Description Of Item | The first page is titled ‘Reflex action of the brain in memory association of ideas & thought.’ Loose individual pages inserted, including square page with quotation from a review published in a journal in 1863, written on decorative paper with ‘Borrowed from the Library Roy. Coll. of Physicians,’ printed in the margins. A torn page with a short note is glued into one of the pages, referencing an article from The Gardeners Chronicle of 16 November 1872 written by Mr Worthington Smith on the subject of ‘Mimicry in Fungi’. The slip of paper is stamped with the coat of arms of the University of Edinburgh. This note refers to the article ‘Protective Resemblance in Nature’ on page 1528 of the journal, which discusses ‘four instances of rare species of fungi possessing the exact habits and colours of common species.’ In the note Laycock has written about two types of fungi mentioned in the article – Agaricus atraus and Cantharellus carbonarius. These two types of fungi are frequently found growing in on burnt places in woods, the latter always in the company of the former. The fungi are identical and it is only possible to differentiate them by picking them and examining the gills. The article questions why mimicking the resemblance of another species would be advantageous to the fungi, stating that ‘it has, however, certainly protected the rarer species from the hands of fungus gatherers […] they have for years been passed over as the commoner ones.’
From the collection of Thomas Laycock. |