THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB
21
Corporation of Colchester, and preparations had been made for
holding it on 26th September. But the Secretaries had regretfully
to inform the members that, owing to the war, the military restrictions
would not permit of the meeting taking place. It is sincerely to be hoped
that national circumstances will next season be such as will allow of such
an interesting meeting being held.
ANNUAL FUNGUS FORAY-CHINGFORD TO HIGH
BEACH (440th MEETING).
Saturday, 17ih October 1914.
The arrangements were similar to those of former years. The Head-
quarters were at the "Roserville Retreat," High Beach, Epping Forest.
The meeting-room was available for the use of members and visitors,
throughout the day, and ample table room for the display of specimens
was provided. There was a goodly gathering of members and visitors,
the arrangements being under the control of the two Secretaries, Mr. P.
Thompson and Mr. W. Cole; the latter is much obliged to the principal
Referees for the material used in this report. They were, for Basidiomy-
cetes and Ascomycetes, Mr. Arthur A. Pearson, Mr. F. G. Gould, and Mr.
A. D. Cotton, F.L.S.; and for Myxomycetes Miss Gulielma Lister, F.L.S. As
in former years, members of the Selborne Society and the School Nature
Study Union took part in the meeting, by invitation of the Club.
The morning party started from Chingford station at about 11 o'clock,
and walked through the glades on the western edge of the Forest to High
Beach. "Owing to the prolonged dry weather very few specimens were
collected on the ground," writes Mr. Gould, "particularly where the
soil was of clay, but on gravelly soil, and on stumps and trees, fungus was
rather more abundant. Thus Pholiota spectabilis and adiposa—tree-para-
sites—were much in evidence, while such species as Hypholoma fascicu-
laris and sublateritius, Pluteus cervinus, Armillaria mucida, Psilocybe
spadicea and Polystictus adustus, which occur on dead stumps, were also
well represented. In the Birch-woods around High Beach Church, where
gravel occurs, large numbers of the handsome "Fly Agaric" (Amanita
muscaria) were found, and also several species of Boletus. It was in-
teresting to note that while there was an undoubted falling off both in
quantity and variety, attributable to the dryness of the. season, the
scarcity was much more evident among the species usually found on
clay soil than among those found growing in other soils and situations.
The members of the afternoon party came to Loughton station, where
they were met by Mr. Thompson. The two detachments met in the
neighbourhood of Monk Wood, and the ground between that district
and High Beach was then explored. In Mr. A. D. Cotton's notes he
says, "We really found very little on the way up from the station, and
practically all I saw was in the show-room, where in gas light one takes
as a rule all names as correct.
"The Polypore I spoke of was what I thought it to be, Fomes
fraxineus. It is not very common, and is distinguished from the allied