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A SHORT HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF
MYCETOZOA IN BRITAIN, WITH A LIST OF
SPECIES RECORDED FROM ESSEX.
By Miss GULIELMA LISTER, F.L.S.
(Being a Presidential Address, delivered at the thirty-sixth Annual Meeting on
31st March 1917.)
BEFORE reading my address, I should like to express
my appreciation of the honour you do me by electing me
to be your President for another year. During the past year,
the way has been made very easy and pleasant to me, owing
to the kindness I have received. I should like especially
to thank our Secretary, Mr. Thompson, for his admirable arrange-
ments in regard to the work of the club, and Mr. Whitaker for
presiding at the meetings when I was unable to be present,
as well as for the help his geniality and wide experience have
afforded us whenever he has attended our gatherings, and
rarely has he failed to attend them.
It has been the custom, I believe, on the occasion of the
Annual Meeting, for a short sketch to be given of the activities
of the Club during the previous year. I will, therefore, make
a few remarks on this subject.
Notwithstanding the limitations put upon us by the necessity
of the war, which causes our coastal districts to be debarred
from us and renders travelling increasingly difficult and expen-
sive, our excursions and meetings have been as enjoyable and
instructive as ever. Those of us who were able to attend them
have been grateful to the Club for affording change of ideas and
refreshment of mind, with pleasant social intercourse, when
these were much wanted. Whether our gatherings have
been indoors or out of doors, they have taken us away from cares
and anxieties and rewarded us with the invigoration which
the study of nature never fails to bring.
Last spring, we paid two visits to London—one to the Zoo-
logical Gardens, the other to the Chelsea Physic Garden. Here,
in Chelsea, a district now completely enveloped by London,
the beautiful old garden of the Society of Apothecaries, founded
in 1673, flourishes more vigorously than ever under its able
curator, Mr. Hales, and is a source of ever-increasing botanical
usefulness.
In July, an excursion for the study of Grasses, under the
guidance of Mr. Groves, led us from Loughton to Theydon by
country lanes and field paths that were unfamiliar to many