230
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
tion to some specimens and drawings of the Bog Orchis (Malaxis paludosa)
which he was exhibiting, showing the green bulbil formed at the base of
the flowering axis, which remains through the winter to germinate in the
following spring.
The meeting then terminated.
CRYPTOGAMIC FORAY—LOUGHTON TO HIGHBEACH.—
(554th MEETING).
SATURDAY, 11TH NOVEMBER, 1922.
Some 36 members and friends joined this Foray, which took place in;
mild, favourable weather, following a day of heavy rain.
The referees were as under:—
Mr. L. B. Hall, F.L.S., and
For Mosses and Hepatics .. .. Mr W. R. Sherrin, A.L.S.
Miss A. Lorrain Smith, F.L.S., and
For Lichens ...... Mr. R. Paulson, F.L.S.
For Fungi and Myxomycetes . . Miss G. Lister, F.L.S.
The party assembled at Loughton Station at 10.41 o'clock, and made
its way through the village towards Strawberry Hill. Before entering the
woodlands a halt was called just before eleven o'clock, and the two minutes'
Silence of Remembrance of the Great War was duly observed, it being
"Armistice Day."
Entering the Forest at "Staples Pond" (a pond no longer, the brick
dam having been broken away some two years ago, and the pond converted
into a swampy glade with a meandering stream—the "Loughton Brook"—
winding through it), the route followed by the party was by way of Grubb's
Pits to Blackweir Hill, and so to the old Gravel Pit near Monk Wood, where
lunch was taken. The gravel pit was found to be converted into a rushy pool
by choking up of the ditch which has hitherto drained it, and the site of
the Osmunda and other ferns noticed a year ago was now drowned beneath
two feet of water.
Proceeding through Great Monk Wood to the Wake Valley, and collect-
ing en route, the party, by this time split up into several groups, gradually
made its way in the direction of the headquarters at the Roserville Retreat,
Highbeach, where, at 4.30 o'clock, tea was served.
After tea a meeting of the Club was held with the President (Mr. R. Paul-
son, F.L.S., F.R.M.S.) in the chair.
Miss Catherine M. Hughes, of 116, Cranbrook Road, Ilford, was elected
a member of the Club, and one certificate of nomination was read.
The President then called upon the several conductors for reports on
the day's finds.
Miss Lister reported that 14 species of myxomycetes had been found,
among them a fine development of Lamproderma violaceum, which oc-
curred in shining black, freshly-formed sporangia on the under side of a mass
of much-decayed beech-wood. This species, which is far from common