228
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
RAMBLE IN EPPING FOREST (839th Meeting).
SATURDAY, 18TH SEPTEMBER, 1943.
A small party of two dozen members duly assembled at 11 o'clock on this
date at the point in Whitehall Road, Woodford Wells, where it crosses the Ching
Brook.
The route followed through the Forest was along the winding banks of the
Brook as far as Connaught Water, thence across Fairmead Bottom to the higher
ground of Strawberry Hill and on to Debden Slade and Loughton, where tea had
been arranged for at the Bower Cafe. Throughout the day the weather was
perfect.
The object of the ramble was primarily botanical, and good results were
obtained, largely owing to the intimate knowledge of the districts traversed which
our conductor, Mr. Ross, possessed. In all 125 plants in actual flower or fruit
were noted : some of the more interesting finds, however, were those which were
not at this season either flowering or fruiting.
Two or three plants of Solomon's Seal, Polygonatum multiflorum, were pointed
out by our conductor : first noticed here some four years ago they have not since
increased their numbers. In the same thicket were several specimens of the alien
Spiraea salicifolia ; other notable finds in the neighbourhood were bushes of
Wild Cherry, Prunus Cerasus, Geranium pratense, and a fine spread of Butterbur,
Petasites vulgaris (these not flowering), the alien Claytonia alsinoides, Pimpinella
major (these in flower), and, among cryptogams, many Broad Buckler and Male
ferns and Adder's-tongue fern.
Along the Ching Brook many Spindle-trees, Euonymus europaeus, exhibited
their brightly-hued fruits, and one bush of Sloe, Prunus spinosa, presented a
charming sight with its purple drupes. On the other hand, Rhamnus catharticus
was shy of its berries. Buckbean and Water Violet plants (not in flower) were
observed.
Other outstanding finds were Castalia alba, Hypericum humifusum, Impatiens
parviflora, Peplis Portula, Lythrum Salicaria, Conium maculatum, Angelica
sylvestris, Symphoricarpum racemosum, Achillea Ptarmica, Linaria vulgaris,
Lycopus europaeus, Stachys palustris, Humulus Lupulus, Elodea canadensis, Iris
Pseudacorus and Butomus umbellatus, all in either flower or fruit.
Interest of a non-botanical nature was aroused when a small bomb-crater in
Fairmead Bottom was found to have exposed, by chance, a prehistoric cooking
site and was seen to be littered with calcined flints (" potboilers ").
ORIGINAL NOTES.
Stemonitis hyperopta Meylan in Essex.
The typical form of this species of the Mycetozoa was found by Mr. J. Ross on
July 29th of this year (1943) on decayed wood in the Chingford Forest. It is a
new record for the County, although the variety microspora Lister appeared
abundantly on dead leaves in the Wanstead Park in the autumn of 1896 and 1897.
The specimen consists of a single cluster of about twenty shortly stalked sporangia,
from 3 to 4 mm. in height. The dense capillitium has a rather uneven surface
net extending over the lower two thirds of its length, while the upper third is
without a surface net ; the colour of the spores in mass is warm lilac-brown;
they measure 6 to 6.5u in diameter, and show under a high magnification a faint
reticulation with a few small patches of closer reticulation or groups of warts.
This widely distributed species was first described by the late Dr. Rex of
Philadelphia in 1893 as Comatricha typhoides Rost. var. heterospora, but the
constant presence of a surface net in the lower part of the capillitium led M. Ch.
Meylan in 1918 to place it in the genus Stemonitis. No doubt the two genera are
very closely allied. In the field S. hyperopta may be distinguished from the
abundant species C. typhoides by the absence of any trace of sporangium wall,
or of a silvery skin clothing the stalks; the typical form usually occurs on coni-
ferous wood, but the present gathering was on some other wood, possibly crab.
It has been recorded in the British Isles from Surrey, Bedfordshire, Norfolk,
Somerset, Worcestershire, Northamptonshire and Yorkshire, and also from
Scotland and Ireland.
G. Lister.