THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
105
Mr. John Ramsbottom, O.B.E., Sec.L.S., then read a paper on "The
History of Essex Mycology," which he illustrated by coloured lantern-
photographs of many of the fungi referred to.
Thanks were heartily accorded to Mr. Ramsbottom for his communica-
tion.
CRYPTOGAMIC FORAY IN EPPING FOREST
(708th MEETING).
SATURDAY, 12TH NOVEMBER, 1932.
A most inclement day, with drizzling rain during most of the time
and saturated undergrowth, did not act as a deterrent prospect to a party
of some 30 members and friends who set out from Theydon Bois station
at 10.52 o'clock on the occasion of our annual Cryptogamic Foray in Epping
Forest.
The Referees for the day's finds were:—
For the Mosses and Hepatics, Mr. W. R. Sherrin, A.L.S.
For the Lichens, Mr. P. Thompson, F.L.S.
For the Myxomycetes, Miss G. Lister, F.L.S, and Mr. J. Ross.
Separating into smaller groups, each under a chosen conductor, on
reaching the woodlands, the party assiduously searched for specimens
until the failing light of a November day enforced a cessation of its
activities. The route taken was roughly from Oak Hill to the "Wake
Arms" and thence either via Monk Wood or by way of the Verderer's
Path to Highbeach, which was reached soon after 3 o'clock.
Re-assembled at the Roserville Retreat, the party took tea at 4 o'clock,
following which a meeting of the Club was held with Mr. D. J. Scourfield,
I.S.O., Vice-President, in the chair, when reports were called for from the
several referees as to the results of the day's foray.
Miss Lister reported a total of 25 species of myxomycetes, including
a fine specimen of a Lamproderma which required further study for its
specific determination. She mentioned a remarkable mass of the yellow
plasmodium of Badhamia utricularis which had been observed on an old
log, and added some hints on the best methods of watching the normal
development, and on the preservation of the myxomycetes:
Miss Lister later contributed a detailed report on the finds of the day,
as under:—
The day was still and misty, and everything was moist after previous
rain. Mr. J. Ross, who joined the party at Loughton station on their
way out, had already noted thirteen species while walking across the
Forest from Chingford. Before the end of the day twenty-five species had
been recorded. Perhaps the most striking discovery was a fine colony of
Lamproderma violaceum, found on a log lying on marshy ground. The
iridescent sporangia on their shining black stalks, have unusually dark
and rigid capillitium, the threads of which widen towards the tips of the
branches into almost antler-like expansions, in many cases. The spores
are typical of the lowland form of this variable species; they measure
8 to 9μ and are closely and minutely warted. L. violaceum has been
found repeatedly in Epping Forest, but is by no means common there; it