36
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
The Narrow-leaved Water-Parsnip in Epping Forest. The earliest
mention that we have of this plant, Sium erectum Hudson (Flora Anglica,
p. 103, 1762), as occurring in the Forest, is in a manuscript note made by
Richard Warner in a copy of his Plantae Woodfordiensis. He records
the Sium as "found in some ponds near the Windmill, July." The wind-
mill stood on high ground near where the Napier Arms has been built on
the Woodford New Road. Warner's book, which was written for the use
of himself and his friends, was printed in 1771, and not published till 1784,
nine years after Warner's death. Edward Forster, F.L.S., F.R.S., the well-
known Walthamstow botanist (born 1765, died 1849), wrote on one of the
blank pages of his interleaved copy of Plantae Woodfordiensis that he
had found the plant "in a Claypit on the Forest near Hale End." (See
P. Thompson, "On another Annotated Copy of Warner's Plantae
Woodfordiensis" E.N., vol. xix, p. 227.)
On 14th July, 1911, I found Slum erectum growing in some abundance,
associated with Carex paludosa Good., on swampy ground by the edge of
a pond close to the Rising Sun Inn, by the Woodford New Road, Waltham-
stow. The pond has since been reconditioned, with the result that this
habitat has been destroyed. Recently Mr. Joseph Ross has discovered
Sium erectum in a pond near Whitehall Lane, Chingford, and this is at present
the only locality in the Forest where the plant is known to occur.
In the third edition of Hooker's Students' Flora, p. 173, published 1884,
this Sium appears as S. angustifolium Linn., with the note that "S. erectum
Huds. is a rather earlier name but less appropriate." The stalk of the
Narrow-leaved Water-Parsnip is one to three feet high and is usually rather
weak, and the flowering stem is flexuose, so that the name "erectum" is
not very suitable but, being the older one, by the present rules of nomenclature
it must be retained.
G. Lister.
Amanita spp. in Epping Forest. Amongst fungi collected during a
walk in Epping Forest on 5th September, 1946, my friend, Christopher M.
Swaine, B.Sc, identified the following interesting species:—Amanita
porphyria Abl. & Schw. in Monks' Wood; this species appears to have
been recorded once only—on 18th October, 1924—during the Club's fungus
forays : Amanita nitida Secr, near High Beach; the shining satin-like
pileus first attracted attention; this species does not appear to have been
recorded during the Club's fungus forays.
C. B. Pratt.
Ctenophora flaveolata, Fab. (Diptera, Tipulidae). A new Essex record.
During the Club's ramble in Epping Forest on 27th April, 1946. a visitor,
Mr. W. Byford, noticed on a beech trunk in Great Monks' Wood a large
crane-fly of conspicuous wasp-like colouration. The specimen was identified
as a female of the above species by Capt. L. Parmenter, who was pleased
to accept it for his collection. According to Audcent this species has
previously been recorded only from the counties of Yorkshire, Oxfordshire.
Hampshire and Wiltshire. The new record appears in the Entomologist's
Record for June, 1946.
C. B. Pratt.
Uncommon Butterflies and Moths at Parndon in 1945. A number of
butterflies and moths hitherto unknown or scarce in the neighbourhood were
recorded during the summer of 1945. Species noted included the following :
Silver-washed, High Brown and Pearl-bordered Fritillaries, Green and