NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
123
F.L.S, Royal Horticultural Society's Laboratory, Wisley, Ripley,
Surrey.
Bisporella monilifera, a Fungus on tree-stumps.—
Many visitors to Epping Forest will have noticed dark streaks and
patches on the cut stumps of hornbeams and oak, in various parts,
and may, perhaps, have been unable to account for their presence.
Microscopic examination of a small piece will soon show,
however, that it is due to the growth of a minute fungus, which
spreads rapidly by means of spores, which it produces in great
abundance. The mycelium of the fungus is, in fact, almost
non-existent, practically the whole breaking up into numerous,
minute, two-celled spores, of a very dark colour. The fungus is
common, and is called Bispora monilioides, Corda.
Like many other minute fungi, this is a stage in the life-
history of a higher form—called, in this case, Bisporella monilifera.
It seems probable that the fungus obtains its food partly, at
least, from the sugary sap that always exudes in the spring
from the cut ends of stumps of trees when they bleed, though it
may feed directly upon the wood.—Fred. J. Chittenden,
F.L.S., Wisley, Surrey.
The Hoary Cress in Essex.—Mr. Charles H. Haig, of
Felix House, Chelmsford, writes as follows in the Essex County
Chronicle of 6th August 1909:—'The extracts from The Times
of 1809, which that newspaper is now publishing, are now
largely taken up with the account of the ill-fated expedition to
Walcheren, the island on which the town of Flushing stands, at
the mouth of the river Scheldt.
The object of my letter is to mention that we have a some-
what curious and, probably, indelible relic of this expedition
creeping nearer and nearer to us here at Chelmsford, along the
principal lines of communication. That relic is the Lepidium
draba, the Hoary Cress, or the Chalk-weed, as it is called, in
Thanet.
The troops returning from Walcheren were landed at
Ramsgate and at Margate, and apparently brought the plant
over in their fodder or their bedding. From the Island of
Thanet, on which both Margate and Ramsgate lie, the weed
has spread right up to London. I have seen it at Nunhead and
again at Brentwood, and I have heard of it as being already in
our fields nearer Chelmsford. It is not indigenous to these