ESSEX RIVERS AND THEIR NAMES. 275
the same characteristic structure was found as in the naturally-
occurring specimens.
While it cannot, of course, be assumed that all such masses
of jelly have a common origin, the evidence given above seems
to point strongly to the conclusion that the explanation of Merrett
and Melsheimer is, at least in many cases, correct. The supposed
connection with "shooting-stars" must, presumably, be due
to the coincidence of the jelly being seen at the same time as a
meteoric display. To explain the frequency of this coincidence,
Messrs. W. B. Grove and B. Millard Griffiths, writing in Nature
of July 21st, 1910, pointed out that Myxomycetes were most
plentiful in damp weather, and especially in the latter part of the
year, when the main meteor swarms cross the earth's track.
The same explanation might equally well fit the facts, if jellies
formed from frogs' viscera be substituted for Myxomycetes; for
in the autumn (after the summer feeding period and before
the winter period of hibernation) the reproductive organs of
these animals are in a state of readiness for their increased
activity during the early days of spring.
ESSEX RIVERS AND THEIR NAMES.
By MILLER CHRISTY, F.L.S.
(With a Map of the Rivers and their Basins.)
RIVERS are not "places" and their names are, therefore,
not "place-names" in any ordinary sense. Nevertheless,
those who treat of the place-names of any county or district
are bound to regard river-names as place-names and to treat
of them as such. Moreover, river-names are usually among
the most interesting of all place-names (as I shall regard them
for present purposes), albeit the most difficult to treat; for
many river-names are of extremely-early date. They are
usually short single-element names which have come down
from Keltic or other pre-English times, of the languages of
which times little is known, so that the origins and derivations
of these names are usually obscure. Such names as Avon, Colne,
Stour, Thame, Tene, and the like, occur not uncommonly, in
slightly-varying forms, throughout Britain; and all such probably