28 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
35 Henry III. (1250).
Provision for the feast of St. Edward. The Sheriff of Essex is
directed to deliver at Westminster on the Tuesday next before
the Epiphany 500 hens, 3000 eggs and of swans, cranes and other
wildfowl as many as he can. Witnessed by the King at Bishops
Waltham, December 19th.
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB—REPORTS OF
MEETINGS.
ORDINARY MEETING (662ND MEETING).
SATURDAY, 26TH OCTOBER, 1929.
This, the first meeting of the winter session, was held at 3 o'clock on
the above afternoon in Room 42 of the Municipal College, Romford Road,
Stratford, which had been rearranged as a special exhibition room by
kind permission of the Principal of the College. Mr. D. J. Scourfield,
I.S.O., F.L.S., etc., President, was in the chair. Some 50 members and
visitors were present.
The following persons were elected members of the Club:—
Mrs. A. Mothersole, of Warren House, Roxwell Road, Chelmsford.
Miss Barbara D. Nash, B.Sc., of 12, Windsor Road, Wanstead, E.11.
Mr. John Hannah, of 447, Barking Road, Plaistow, E.13.
Two nominations for membership were read.
The President announced the gift by Miss G. Lister of 75 volumes of
"Ray Society" memoirs to the Club's Library. The thanks of the Club
were warmly accorded to the donor for her generous presentation.
This meeting was a Special Exhibition one, organized by the President
to illustrate aquatic forms of life. The following is a description of the
various exhibits:—
Miss Lister and Miss Hibbert-Ware jointly exhibited and described
various water plants, mainly to illustrate the production of winterbuds.
The plants shown included Water Soldier (Stratiotes aloides), which
produces short leafy shoots which become detached and form
winterbuds (the only means of reproduction of this plant in this country,
seeing that female flowers alone are, with rare exceptions, produced);
Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae), whose winterbads, borne at the ends
of long submerged stolons, drop off and sink to the bottom of the water
during the winter, to rise to the surface in Spring when, with warmer
water, gases are developed in their tissue; Myriophyllum; Cerato-
phyllum, Elodea, and Azolla.
Mr. Percy Horn exhibited varieties of Goldfish, and sketched the
history of the artificial evolution of these showy fish from wild species of
Carp by the Chinese and the Japanese: he mentioned that the modern
cult of Goldfish in the United States amounts to a craze. Mr. Horn
described the growth of the fish in aquaria, from the ovum to the adult
condition, and mentioned the curious fact that the young goldfish exhibit