301
THE HAUNTS OF THE MYCETOZOA.
By Miss GULIELMA LISTER, F.L.S.
(Being a Presidential Address delivered at the thirty-seventh Annual
Meeting held on 6 April 1918.)
I WISH to thank the members of the Club very heartily
for the honour they confer on me by electing me as
their President for the coming year. The report given by our
Honorary Secretary of the history of the Club during the year
that has passed proves that its activities have been undiminished,
and that much interest and refreshment have been provided
by the many well-attended meetings and excursions that have
taken place.
We have to record with much regret that, in consequence
of ill health, the founder of our Club, Mr. William Cole, has
been obliged to resign the Curatorship of our two museums,
the Epping Forest Museum at Chingford and the Essex Museum
at Stratford. He has held these posts since the museums were
opened in 1895 and 1900 respectively. The amount of thought
and enthusiastic effort which Mr. Cole has expended in bringing
the museums to such an efficient and attractive state cannot
easily be estimated : he has worked for the Club with his whole
heart. Although he is no longer able to be among us, we are
assured that his interest in the welfare of the Club is unabated,
and he continues to be one of our Honorary Secretaries. As
his successor in the curatorship of the Essex Museum, we have
in Mr. Thompson, our other Honorary Secretary, one who has
also for many years given us of his services in measure full
and overflowing. It is largely due to such officers as these, as
well as to our Honorary Treasurer, Mr. Avery, who keeps our
finances on such a sound basis, that the Club has flourished so
well in the past. We do not always realise what a demand
in time and thought is made by these honorary offices, and how
much we owe to those who thus minister to us.
The title I thought first of giving this address was a more
pretentious one—namely, "The Ecology of the Mycetozoa."
There were reasons, however, against using the word "ecology,"
which has become so popular of late years. One reason was
that it is a term which has been applied, I believe, only to