208 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
ORDINARY MEETING (831st Meeting).
SATURDAY, 28TH NOVEMBER, 1942.
This meeting, held at Woodford as usual, was attended by 28 members.
The President was in the chair.
Major W. Dunlop, O.B.E., R.A.M.C., of Wellingtons, Southminster,
Essex, and
Mr. James Golding, of 26, Spratt Hall Road, Wanstead, E.11, were
elected to membership.
The President exhibited specimens of flints to illustrate patination, which
phenomenon is in his view not wholly a question of time, but also of other con-
ditions, notably the action of organisms such as iron-bacteria in the soil.
Mr. Main sent for exhibition various chrysalids of the Large White. Butterfly
to show how they assimilate in colour with that of their surroundings.
The Curator exhibited sample specimens of toys made from natural objects
such as scallop and whelk shells, teasel heads, furcula of birds and the sacrum of
rabbit : these toys had been purchased by the late Mr. Edward Lovett in village
shops in Surrey and Sussex many years since, before the influx of foreign-made
toys had ousted such simple home-made examples.
He also showed photographs and prints of Mistley and its neighbourhood
from the Pictorial Survey collection.
Mr. Crouch exhibited a pedigree, genealogical chart and other documents
relating to the Henniker family of West Ham.
Mr. D. J. Scourfield read a descriptive paper on the rare spiral diatom,
Cylindrotheca gracilis, which he has found in water accumulated in bomb-craters
in Epping Forest. The paper was followed by an interesting discussion in which
various members joined.
Mr. Ross read an account of the mycetozoa found in Epping Forest during
1942.
The meeting was adjourned at a few minutes before 4 o'clock.
ORDINARY MEETING (832nd Meeting).
SATURDAY, 30TH JANUARY, 1943.
This meeting was, as usual, held at "Brooklands," 37, Churchfields, Woodford
at 2 o'clock. The President was in the chair. Nearly 30 members attended.
The Curator exhibited some flint-flakes from a tiny islet (Burhou) in the
Channel Islands, now uninhabited and separated from Alderney by a
stormy strait 11/2 mile wide, but which was probably in Neolithic times joined
thereto, and perhaps even to the coast of Brittany, by a land-bridge of softer
rocks since removed. One of the flints was of interest and our President, to
whom it had been submitted for his opinion, reports on it as follows :—
This is probably a sickle-flint, which is a type of implement of considerable
interest. For use, several of these sickle-flints were set in a curved handle of
wood, complete examples of which have been discovered in Egypt. There can
be no doubt that these implements were dispersed, with local modifications, from
their original home in the Middle East, this specimen is of the variety found
along the coasts of Kent and Sussex. (I have never seen one from elsewhere in
England), so it seems quite appropriate to the Channel Islands. A different
modification was developed in Spain. Although there was no regular contact
between the Middle East and Britain at this time some adventurous spirits probably
reached our shores and brought the idea with them.
The flint sickle found in Britain generally is a curved flint blade in one
piece, adapted for use without any additional haft. This is more nearly related
to the flint sickles of north-western Europe than to the sickle-flints of the Middle
East, which I think must have reached our shores by the sea route.
Miss Lister showed specimens and coloured drawings of Forsythias viridissima,
suspensa and intermedia, to demonstrate the specific differences in the solid or
chambered pith ; she also exhibited the fruits of F. suspensa and of the Common
Jessamine, both of which are included in the natural order Oleaceae.
Miss Flower showed and described a series of excellent photographs, taken by
herself in observing the stages of emergence of the large dragonfly Anax imperator
m, an operation which occupied two hours in all.
In the absence of the author, Dr. Rupert Coles, the Hon. Sec. read his paper
on "The Liming of Essex Soils," which was illustrated by diagrammatic maps
of the County from an agricultural point of view.