NOTES.
229
At a service to commemorate our greatest Essex naturalist, John Ray,
held on January 15th last in Black Notley church (he died on January 17th,
1705), our Club was represented by our member, Mr. Alfred Hills, of
Bocking. It will be remembered that in 1912 the Club raised a fund to
restore Ray's tomb in Black Notley churchyard.
The Essex Naturalist has appeared at the usual half-yearly intervals,
and the editor ventures to think that the scientific value of the articles
published compares favourably with that of earlier issues.
The Library has been enriched by 138 additional volumes during the
year, and now consists of 7,139 bound volumes.
The Pictorial Survey has increased by 762 items, and now boasts a
total of 11,882 mounted items.
Your Council has to announce, with deep regret, the decease of various
prominent members since our last annual meeting, including one of its
own body, Mr. W. H. Daun. Other losses include Mrs. Mothersole, Mrs.
W. C. Waller, Mr. James Guest, Mr. W. S. Gilles, Mr. W. H. Henwood
and Mr. D. Lloyd Howard.
As a result of these losses, with other factors, the total membership
of the Club has of late shown a decline; this, although not serious, may
unhappily be symptomatic of the lessened interest, especially among
younger people, in serious studies such as natural history and archeology
Your Council appeals therefore to the members to use their individual
efforts to increase the inflow of recruits to our membership, without which
the Club's activities may be seriously prejudiced.
NOTES: ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Comatricha tenerrima (Curtis) G. Lister.—A new record for Essex.
In March and April, 1939, Mr. W. D. Graddon found this small species
of the mycetozoa, on old stems of Rosebay Willowherb, standing in shallow
water in Lords Bushes, Buckhurst Hill. It is closely allied to the more
abundant C. pulchella (Ch. Bab.) Rost., from which it differs in having
longer stalks, pinker and usually more slender sporangia and paler spores;
the habitat also is on dead herbaceous stems and twigs, and not on dead
leaves: the columella often projects slightly above the tip of the sporangium.
Although C. tenerrima is widely distributed throughout the British Isles,
Europe, North America and Japan and has been recorded from eight
English counties, Mr. Graddon's gatherings are the first that we know of
from Essex.
G. Lister.
Late Spring Migration of Terns.—Mr. Wright informs me that on
June 23rd, 1939, at the King George Reservoir, Chingford, he saw a
party of twelve Common Terns, Sterna hirundo, and two Black Terns,
Chlidonias niger. Of the latter, one was an adult, whilst the other
appeared to be in immature plumage.
B. T. Ward.