Collecting does not differ, except in the objects themselves, from any other botanical collecting. Those who attempt it must be prepared to sacrifice their kid gloves and patent-leather boots, to put on waterproofs and perseverance, and come home sometimes disappointed. The requisites for good work are but few, and easily supplied. A strong knife, a pocket lens, and a box or leather bag, will be all that is really essential. But where shall we go—and when? Hedge-banks, the sides of ditches, borders of woods, anywhere, if the plants are to be found on which the fungi are parasitic. We flatter ourselves on being rather successful in collecting, and our favourite localities have always been the dampest places in woods, railway-banks, and waste places. It is a great mistake to endeavour to go over a large tract of ground. We have spent a whole day in a little chalkpit, which had fallen into disuse, and grown wild. Fifty yards into a wood is as much, as we attempt, when alone; and a spot six yards square has afforded us occupation for hours. It is better to examine a small space thoroughly than to scamper on, mile after mile, and find nothing. When? is as much to be noted as where! All the year round we shall be sure of finding something of interest. As soon as the last patch of winter’s snow has melted from the ground, and green leaves begin to unfold themselves, the search may begin. Cluster-cups (_Æcidium_) will be the earliest forms encountered. On the leaves of _Lapsana communis_, and the pilewort, these will be found before the majority of plants have burst their buds. Henceforth, other forms will gradually appear, until May or June. One or two species of _Puccinia_ will be seen in April or May, but from that period until autumn, species of _Trichobasis_ will be common. In June and July the smuts belonging to the genus _Ustilago_ are most plentiful, and from August to October _Puccinia_ and its allied genera will have the ascendant; so that from March to October there is continually succeeding each other some species of parasitic fungus belonging to the Uredines. From October to March need be no more a season of repose from the search of these minute plants than from March to October. So long as the ground is not covered with snow there will always be something to find on dead leaves, rotten sticks, &c., when there is not a green leaf to be seen. But these belong to a section to which we have studiously avoided all reference in the foregoing pages. General instructions will not always apply; but in most instances, the lowest and earliest leaves, in which vitality appears to decline, will be most likely to suffer from the attacks of fungi. This rule must not be too stringently applied; the species of _Æcidium_, for instance, will generally be found on vigorous green leaves.