NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 153
varieties. I have found not only such as have throughout the five-fold sym-
metry, seen by Mr. Unthank at Brightlingsea, but have with me on the
"Glimpse" specimens stained and mounted as lantern-slides, having entire
three-fold and entire six-fold symmetry, and one in which it is partially two-fold.
I think it may be said that in Suffolk and Essex a few such abnormal varieties
occur per thousand of the normal. An imperfect four-fold symmetry is much
more common." Mr. Unthank adds to the above : "In Bateson's 'Materials for
the Study of Variation' Aurelia is stated to be commonly variable, and Ehrenberg
mentioned as putting the pentamerous variation at 3 per cent.—much lower than
Prof. Herdman's 'four or five out of twelve.' Out of 1,763 specimens thrown up
on the shore at Northumberland, 1,735 specimens (I think) were normal, and
only 1 per cent. pentamerous."]
Silene Conica, Lin.—I found this plant growing freely in a field of crim-
son clover (Trifolium incarnatum, Lin.) near this town. I believe this is the first-
time that this plant has been recorded in this county. It is a rare plant, found
only in the Eastern counties, and occasionally in ballast hills farther north. Pro-
bably it has only recently been introduced into this locality, but seed vessels
having been freely formed it may become established.—J. C. Shenstone, Col-
chester. [In Gibson's "Flora of Essex" it is stated that "D. French has a
specimen of this species gathered near Harlow Bury House, in 1858. It was
only once found."—Ed]
The Bedford's Oak, Havering-atte-Bower.—Mr. D. T. Bruton wrote
on 29th of November, 1893 :—". I don't know whether the fact has been re-
ported to you, but during the gale of Saturday night and Sunday morning the
great old oak in the grounds of ". Bedfords," the seat of James Theobald, Esq.,
M.P., was rent in half from the top to the bottom. It had a wonderful hale-
looking top, being alive in every branch ; was a great feature in the grounds, and
highly prized. The view from it is one of the finest the kingdom of Essex
could command, and is to-day one of the noblest, richest, and mo t beautiful of
industrial England, commanding as it does the Thames Valley between London
and the sea, all laden and aglow like a heavenly shore.
" The trunk of the old oak measured twenty-seven feet in circumference at
the smallest part. The base was encircled with a rustic seat."
In a subsequent letter Mr. Bruton remarks :—". So far as I know, the history
of the oak is unwritten. It is a very remarkable specimen, and is adjudged to be
quite a thousand years old [? Ed.], and so must have been a good-sized tree
before the Saxon line of English kings came to an end. Hence my remark that
Edward the King and Confessor of canonized memory may have read and medi-
cated beneath its spreading boughs. For here at Havering, the centre of the
old Heptarchic Kingdom of Essex, stood the palace where he sometimes resided
as did many other of our English kings. It is a very lovely spot, and those who
first selected it, in the days when the land was all before them where they chose
to dwell, showed an appreciative taste.
" To recur, however, to the old tree. Truly it is a grand specimen of an oak.
The trunk, or body, was shapely, and of a good, fair height, with a noble and
symmetrical head of nevertheless very gnarled branches, a very study of a hardy
giant of centuries' growth, that had withstood storm and tempest, winter and rough
weather. Several drawings were made of it last summer by an artist named
Johnson, then residing in the village. A good photograph was also taken by
Mr. Smee, the successor of Mr. Porter, photographer of Manor Park.
M