20 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Hence it is clear that the dwarfed condition is not pathological,
but is simply a retardation of growth.
The snails exhibited were bred in connection with Professor Boycott's
researches into the inheritance of the sinistral form of Limnaea pereger,
specimens of which were shown.
Mr. Jane exhibited a collection of living plants to illustrate modifica-
tions of the shoot and leaves. In Passiflora the shoot is modified as a.
tendril, in Hippophae its tip becomes a spine, in Ruscus the flattened
shoots (cladodes) function as leaves : in various Acacias the leafstalks are
modified into vertically flattened phyllodes which take the place of leaves,
and in Nepenthes the leaves themselves are curiously modified into the
pitchers which serve to entrap the insects upon which the plant depends for
nitrogeneous food.
Mr. Thorrington exhibited a culture showing soral apospory in
Athyrium felix-faemina var. clarissima. The sporangia in this fern-variety
(at first thought to be abortive and barren) produce elongate straplike
shoots (pseudo-bulbils) which develop heartshaped prothalli at their apices,
and these bear normal archegonia and antheridia which reproduce the
plant.
Mr. Nicholson exhibited specimens of the beetle, Cis boleti bred from the
fungus Polystictus versicolor from Highbeach.
Mr. Main showed a living Bird-catching Spider from Trinidad, which
would, he found, feed on cockroaches.
Mr. Thompson exhibited photographs of the old 16th century house,
"Paycockes," at Coggeshall, which had just been presented to the nation
by our member, th' Right Honourable Noel E. Buxton, Minister of
Agriculture.
Thanks were accorded to the donors and exhibitors.
The President then called upon Mr. Frank Lambert, M.A., F.S.A., who
gave a lecture on the "Romano-British Pottery found at Chigwell" which
is preserved in the Club's Museum at Queen Elizabeth's Lodge, Chingford.
The lecturer illustrated his subject by a series of coloured lantern-photo-
graphs and by the exhibition of the actual specimens of pottery, which had
been brought by Miss Oxley from the Lodge for the occasion.
At the conclusion of the lecture, some appreciative remarks were made
by the Hon. Secretary and the hearty thanks of those present were given
to Mr. Lambert.
NATURE RAMBLE IN HAINAULT FOREST
(577th MEETING)
SATURDAY, 15TH MARCH, 1924.
This, the second venture at a mid-March Field Meeting, inspired by the
satisfaction expressed with last year's similar function, proved to be again
a distinct success, no fewer than some forty-five Members turning out,
a goodly muster for such an early date. Doubtless the remarkably fine
sunny weather of the previous week was the determining factor in bringing
members out after the partial hybernation of the past long and somewhat
severe winter.