208 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
The main body of members assembled at Theydon Bois Station at a little
after three o'clock, others walking over the Forest, and joining in at Piercing
Hill, The weather was delightful, and very many objects of natural history
were observed.
Mr. Paulson was Botanical Conductor, and the work sketched out for the
meeting consisted mainly in the collecting and examination of the Grasses and
Sedges of the Forest, especially heath, bog and woodland forms.
The early part of the afternoon was spent on the slopes of Piercing Hill, in
Epping Thicks, and in the beautiful forest glades near Ambresbury Banks.
The following species of Carices were collected mainly in this locality, but a
few were noticed in traversing the part of the Forest known as "St. Thomas's
Quarters" in the evening: Carex echinata, Murr.; C. remota, L. ; C. ovalis,
Good. ; C. goodenovii!, J. Gay ; C. flacca, Schreb. ; C. verna, Chaix. ; C. panicea,
L. ; C. sylvatica, Huds. ; C. lepidocarpa, Tousch. ; and C. hirta, Linn.
[The botanist is referred to Mr. Paulson's paper "Notes on the Carices of
the Epping Forest Area" in Essex Naturalist, vol. iv. (1890), pp. 135-137,
for full list of species now known to grow there.]
Among the other plants noticed may be mentioned Anagallis tenella, L. ;
Wahlenbergia hederacea, Reichb. ; and the grasses Deschampia flexuosa, Trin., and
Sieglingia decumbens, Bernh,
Tea was taken in a tent, erected by Messrs. Riggs and Sons, in a pleasant
glade just outside the ramparts of Ambresbury Camp. Afterwards Prof. Meldola
took the chair, and Mr. Paulson gave a short demonstration upon the plants
gathered during the ramble, and including a comparison of the leaves, stems, and
flowers of a Carex and a Grass, illustrated by the plants in hand.
Then the way home to Loughton was taken by a circuitous route, through
St. Thomas's Quarters, by the Wake Valley Ponds, through Monks Wood and
Loughton Camp, down to Debden Slade, many interesting plants being observed
and commented on as opportunity offered, and so to Loughton Station.
It was a subject of frequent remark, and was exceedingly disappointing to
the naturalist to witness, the slow extinction of the bog flora of the Forest,
caused by the straight ditches cut through the bog land. These ditches are
not confined to the more frequented parts, but they intersect some of the roost
secluded spots where the flora might be allowed to remain in all its original
luxuriance without inconvenience to any one.
Second Voyage down the Lea from Hertford to Waltham Abbey.
Saturday, June 27th, 1896.
" 'That is the good fortune of most of our home Counties,' said Mr. Braefieid ; 'they
escape the smoke and din of manufacturing towns, and agricultural science has not
demolished their leafy hedgerows. The walks through our green lanes are as much
bordered with Convolvulus and Honeysuckle as they were when Izaak Walton sauntered
through them to angle in that stream !'" Lytton's "Kenelm Chillingly."
Conductors—Major Lamorock FLOWER, F.San.I. (Sanitary Engineer to the Lee
Conservancy Board), J. C. Shenstone, Esq., Wilfred Mark Webb, Esq.,
F.L.S., Robert Paulson, Esq., and the Hon. Secretaries.
Major Lamorock Flower having again promised his valuable aid as
"Conductor," and, by the courtesy of the Lee Conservancy Board, the steam