THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
133
The National Trust.—The Report for 1924-25 of the National Trust
for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty shows that very satis-
factory progress is being made in the preservation of English beauty-spots
for public enjoyment. During the year thirteen new properties have
been acquired, or their purchase completed, these including Cissbury Ring,
the well-known prehistoric earthwork near Worthing; Stony Jump, a hill
in the picturesque Hindhead district; the summit of Scafell and some sixty
acres more land in the Lake District; 414 acres of farm land near Bir-
mingham ; the Fame Islands ; and a Roman villa at Chedworth : altogether
a good year's work !
As regards the Essex properties of the Trust, we note that 320 acres
additional Hatfield Forest (making 920 acres in all) have been acquired ;
some repairs to Paycocke's House at Coggeshall have been effected ; and at
Eastbury Manor House, the outhouses on the south side of the garden wall
have been removed, and the latter repaired. Editor.
Radhamia Populina (Lister) at Walthamstow.—This uncommon
species of the Mycetozoa appeared in considerable abundance during
November, 1924, on poplar logs in the grounds of the Metropolitan Water
Board at Walthamstow. The logs were piled into stacks six to eight feet
high, and on the dark bark many patches of the fragile, greyish-white spor-
angia had developed, forming conspicuous cushions varying from one to
three inches across. Badhamia populina was found first in June, 1899, on
a wood-pile in Walthamstow. Between the years 1902 and 1913, it frequently
appeared in late autumn and winter on fallen poplars in the Avenues,
Wanstead, and in Wanstead Park. It has also been obtained in Yorkshire,
in France, Moldavia, and repeatedly in the State of Colorado, where it
occurred on the bark of either poplar or box-elder (Acer negundo). The
Yorkshire specimen is remarkable for having pale rose-coloured sporangia.
On the same wood-pile by the Walthamstow Reservoirs other species of
Mycetozoa were abundant during the same month, namely Badhamia
panicea Rost, and Physarum compressum Alb. and Schwein, both pale-
grey species, while great quantities of Perichaena corticalis Rost. had de-
veloped on the inner stringy bark of the poplar logs, with which the sporan-
gia harmonized in colour. On heaps of dead grass cleared out from the
Reservoirs, Physarum compressum Alb. and Sch., Didymium difforme Duby,
and D. squamulosum Fries were also noted. G. Lister.
Arum italicum in Essex.—There is no record, so far as I have been
able to discover, of the occurrence of this plant in Essex. Gibson does not
mention it in his Flora (1862) and it does not appear in Mr. Shenstone's
much-later list in the Victoria County Histories (1904). It may be well,
therefore, to record that on May 16, 1925, I found it growing in some
abundance and in full flower round the edges of the churchyard at East
Horndon, which, with its picturesque church, lies on the steep southerly
slope of the London Clay hills, with a very extensive prospect to the
southward over the valley of the Thames. The nature of the habitat
suggests that the plant may have come there by artificial means. If so,
it seems to be spreading ; for I saw one or two plants in a ditch half-a-mile