265
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.—REPORTS OF
MEETINGS.
VISIT TO THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, REGENT'S
PARK (473rd MEETING).
SATURDAY, 21ST APRIL 1917.
Some 20 members and friends visited the Royal Botanic Gardens on
the above afternoon by kind permission of the Royal Botanic Society.
The party was received by the Curator, at 2.30 o'clock, at the entrance,
and personally conducted through the grounds and plant-houses. Many
interesting objects were pointed out during the two hours' tour of the
Gardens, and a hearty vote of thanks to the conductor closed a very
pleasant and instructive afternoon.
EXCURSION TO RICKMANSWORTH, THE CHESS
VALLEY, AND CHENIES (474th MEETING).
SATURDAY, 19TH MAY 1917.
A most interesting botanical ramble was carried out by 17 members
and friends in the valley of the small river Chess in Hertfordshire, under
the capable leadership of Mr. Robert Paulson, F.L.S.
Travelling by through electric train from town, the visitors reached
Rickmansworth at 2.30 o'clock and at once struck into the Park. Here
the attention of the ecologists was arrested by the defined masses of Stinging
Nettle under the shade of the large old Lime trees, which form a con-
spicuous avenue through the Park (one of them having a spread of branch
of no less than 96 feet !), the nettles being sharply defined from the sur-
rounding grass-land of the Park. It was suggested that deer, or cattle,
or horses, gathering beneath the shade of the trees for refuge from flies,
may, by pawing the ground with their hoofs, have disturbed the original
grass-carpet, and so permitted these weeds to form a close-association,
aided no doubt by the manure left by the cattle on the disturbed surface.
Continuing along the Chess Valley to Sarratt Bottom, many interesting
plants were met with in the water-meadows, one marshy meadow in
particular being rich with flowers of Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata),
Caltha palustris, and Alchemilla vulgaris, while Mimulus luteus (not
yet flowering) was seen along the river-side. In a wood near Rickmans-
worth, flowering" specimens of Dentaria bulbifera were noticed. The
route leading up from Sarratt Bottom to Chenies village yielded Sherardia
arvensis, Valerianella olitoria, Chelidonium majus, Galium galeobdolon,
Myosotis collina, Crepis taraxacifolia and other interesting" forms. In
all, over 80 flowering plants were noted during the ramble.
Lichens were numerous, including much Urceolaria scruposa, Lecanora.
parella, L. atra, and Lecidea contigua on brick walls, Parmelia fuliginosa,
Calicium hyperellum, Parmelia sulcata, P. caperata, and Pertusaria amara
on tree-trunks, and Trachylia tympanella, Physcia polycarpa, and P.
lychnea (the latter not fruiting) on oak fence-rails.
tea was taken at the village inn at Chenies, and the party afterwards
walked on to Chorley Wood station, where the London train was caught
shortly before S o'clock. The total ramble had involved a walk of
some seven miles.