THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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found in the same place, Dr. Laver said that he thought they were Saxon and of
very early date. The teeth in the skull were worn down as was usual in early
times, owing to imperfectly ground corn upon which the people fed.
The Rev. C. L. Acland exhibited a series of specimens from Brandon in
Suffolk, illustrating the manufacture of gun-flints, and stated that the "tinder-box"
was still used in many parts of Great Britain. He considered that many of the
so-called "scrapers" of Neolithic age, were really "strike-a-lights" for use
with nodules of iron pyrites—a mode of obtaining fire, which was quite easy in
practice.
Mr. Shenstone before addressing the meeting on the "Flora of Colchester,"
said that he had frequently when away been condoled with on the flat and
unpleasant character of their Essex scenery, but he hoped that the photographs
exhibited that evening by Mr. Gill and himself would go some way to dissipate
this notion. He also exhibited under the microscope many species of Foraminifera,
which had been got out of oyster mud procured from a fisherman at East Mersea.
Mr. Shenstone then went through the specimens of plants collected during the
meeting, and also showed a long series of rare and local plants of the district from
his herbarium, making interesting running comments upon each species. (See
Mr. Shenstone's "Report on the flowering Plants growing in the neighbourhood
of Colchester," Essex Naturalist, i., 22.)
The President, in expressing the obligations of the meeting to their "Botanical
Conductor," said that Mr. Shenstone was apparently the only active local botanist
who had contributed to the Essex Naturalist—but such a good example should
stimulate other members of the Club to work in this direction.
Mr. W. H. Harwood exhibited his fine collection of the Aculeate Hymenoptera
of the neighbourhood of Colchester, and also many interesting Lepidoptera,
including a magnificent series of Phorodesma smaragdaria. He said that a few
years ago his acquaintance with Entomology was rather narrow, and he was almost
under the impression that the genus Crabro had something to do with the Crustacea.
He had been shocked out of his indifference by a brother entomologist inquiring
with contempt, "Do you know nothing of Entomology beyond moths and butter-
flies ?" and thereupon he set to work to learn something of other orders of insects.
The boxes exhibited showed what he had been able to do with the Aculeate
Hymenoptera of the district. [Mr. Harwood then gave a sketch of the structure
and habits of this division of Hymenoptera, which includes bees, wasps, ants,
etc., and made comments upon the more interesting specimens in his collection.
He is now engaged upon a paper on the Aculeates of the neighbourhood, which
will be ready, we understand, for one of the winter meetings of the Club.] With
reference to Phorodesma smaragdaria, he knew that it occurred only in that
neighbourhood, but he would not go into the question of precise localities. Some
time ago one caterpillar only had been found near St. Osyth, but it was not known
what it fed upon, Mr. Buxton had the original specimen, and for long afterwards
as much as £7 would be paid for a single moth. Some time ago an Essex-
entomologist asserted that if fed upon Artemisia maritima, a plant upon which
he for one had never thought of looking for it. The first time he (Mr. Harwood)
went after the larva he found numbers, and since then it had been found all round
the district. He was afraid it would not be found much longer, if the present
method of collecting were persisted in. London collectors cut off and tore off
bushels of the food-plant, put the spoil up in a sack, and when at home waited
until the larvae crawled to the glass at the tops of their boxes. [A sketch of