AENEAS MACINTYRE.
269
of interest in the paper is, however, its allusion to a boggy wood
on the eastern side of the Common, in which grew (he says)
Osmunda regalis, whose large and beautiful fronds—"the
"nearest British approach to the palms of the South—rise in
"thousands in the interior of this otherwise uninteresting wood."
To-day, it may be doubted whether a single genuinely-wild
plant of Osmunda grows within the bounds of the County of
Essex; for the plant has been completely exterminated, I
believe, from its former habitats in the woods around Danbury
and Woodham Walter and in Epping Forest, where it once grew
abundantly. Curiously enough, Gibson utilized, in his Flora
of Essex (1862), none of the records given in MacIntyre's paper.
Why this was, I cannot imagine ; for it is clear (see op. cit., p.
xxii.) that Gibson knew of its existence.
Apparently, this paper was the only original contribution
to Natural Science MacIntyre ever published. At all events,
no paper by him (not even this), is given in the Royal Society's
great Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 1800-1863 (1870).
What MacIntyre's connection with the Warley district may
have been I know not. I had surmised that he might have held
some such post as that of chaplain, tutor, or secretary in the
household of Lord Petre, at Thorndon Hall ; but Miss Willmott,
of Warley, who has been good enough to institute enquiries, has
failed altogether to learn that any man of his name ever held any
post therein. Yet the thoroughness of the article suggests
that his acquaintance with the Common and its flora was due to
something more than a mere holiday visit.
At the meeting of the Botanical Society, held on 20th April
1837, MacIntyre occupied the chair.
MacIntyre was a "Compounder" at the Linnean ; and, as
is often the case with such, the Society never knew what became
of him ; but he was lost sight of there after 1843. Messrs. Britten
& Boulger seem, however, to have had evidence (the nature of
which they do not disclose) that he was still living as late as 1860.
Can any member supply further biographical matter regard-
ing him ?