262
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
entered. The visitors soon sorted themselves into grouplets, according
to their special interests, some devoting their attention to the mosses,
others to the lichens, yet others to the myxo's, pursuing their varied quest
by divers routes, which all, however, led ultimately to the headquarters
at Highbeach. The weather, although somewhat cold, was kind, in spite
of an unfavourable official weather forecast, which latter would seem,
as often as not, to be wholly unreliable. In striking contrast to our
experience of the previous year, the autumn beauty of the woodlands
was over : high winds during the past week had stripped the trees bare
of all leaves and the Forest had assumed its winter aspect—dreary,
perhaps, but still beautiful and most fascinating.
Tea was taken at the Roserville Retreat, Highbeach, at 4.15 o'clock,
following which a meeting of the Club was held, with Mr. D. J. Scourfield,
I.S.O., F.L.S., etc., in the Chair, when the several conductors were in turn
called upon for short reports on the finds of the day.
Miss Lister reported a yield of eighteen myxomycetes, which she re-
garded as a good result for the time of year : she commented on the
frequency of these tiny organisms in the Forest as compared with many
other districts.
Miss Lister has since furnished the following detailed report :—
The weather was fine on the day of the Foray, following the heavy
rain of a few days earlier. Of the eighteen species of Mycetozoa recorded,
it is curious that all were found on dead wood, not one of those haunting
dead leaves being found. Two records of exceptional interest were made.
Trichia verrucosa, with golden-yellow sporangia clustered on reddish-
brown membraneous stalks, was found in fairly fresh condition on an old
log half buried in dead leaves : this rather rare species has been obtained
only twice before in Essex ; first, on the Fungus Foray of our Club held
in October, 1917 ; then on the Cryptogamic Foray of November, 1924 ;
and now, after a further seven years, we meet with it again. On referring
to the dates of the twenty British gatherings of this species of which I
have records, I find that two were made in March, one in June, one in July,
one in August, six in September, four in October, four in November, and
one in December, showing that autumn is the most favourable season for
the development of the sporangia.
The other species of unusual interest found was Physarum psittacinum,
a new record for Essex. An extensive growth, covering nearly three
square inches, was seen on the decaying wood of an old pollard oak,
about three feet from the ground. When in perfection this is one of the
most brilliantly coloured of the Mycetozoa : the cinnabar-red plasmodium
emerges from its feeding grounds in dead wood to produce, usually, large
numbers of sporangia. These are iridescent blue or violet, spotted over
with little patches of bright red ; the stalks and lime-knots also are bright
red, so that the species well deserves its name of "parrot Physarum."
It usually appears in July and August; the fact of its being found in
November is no doubt due to last October having been a dry month,
otherwise the sporangia would have been washed away. As it was,
they were found felted together with white mould, but the characteristic
translucent red stalks at once served to identify the form as P.psittacinum.