282 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
trees were felled to combat a fungoid disease) and to the northern part of
the Forest.
In the dry months of the spring and summer some species emerging on
decaying wood were found after each considerable rainfall, but species
occurring on dead leaves were very scarce. When going on the route to be
taken at the Club's field meeting on 10 April, Mr. Pratt and Mr. Bernard
Ward found Stemonitis ferruginea Ehrenberg and Trichia floriformis (Sch-
weinitz) G. Lister on a log in the grounds of Birch Hall ; the latter species
until then had rarely been found in Epping Forest, and the previous records
known to me had all come from one site. That S. ferruginea was not found
again during the year testifies to the unfavourable character of the summer
season. In May what at first seemed to be a sessile form of T. floriformis
was found by Mr. Bernard Ward near Cuckoo Brook, Chingford, but
microscopic examination proved this to be Trichia Botrytis Persoon, the
hypothallus being brown, not red; in my experience sessile developments
of T. Botrytis and its appearance in May are very unusual. This specimen
was on decayed wood; in the winter the typical form of T. Botrytis was twice
found on leaves.
Of the twenty-one species recorded up to the end of September only one
was on dead leaves. This was Didymium laxifila G. Lister and Ross, which
can be found in most months in the deep leaf beds at the Warren Plantation,
Loughton. Later in the year this species occurred in some abundance in
the wood on the north-western slope of Pole Hill, Chingford ; previously it
had only been found at one or two spots except at the Warren. In the wood
near Pole Hill it developed on holly, oak, and hornbeam leaves. It is a sturdy
traveller, and sometimes climbs to the top of prickles on the underside of
bramble leaves.
Although the woodland was in a very dry condition until 8 October
and although after the rain began some days passed before fresh specimens
appeared, ten species were added to the list in October, only two of these being
on leaves. These two were Didymium nigripes (Link) Fries and Comatricha
pulchella (Churchill Babington) Rostafinski. D. nigripes in favourable
seasons is plentiful in late summer and autumn ; but in 1949 it was scarce.
The specimen of C. pulchella found had been attacked by mould, and probably
matured some weeks prior to the date on which it was found. This species
is not so common as the records of it might lead one to conclude ; frequently
it is preserved in leaf beds and in a mouldy state, when more fragile forms
would have been destroyed.
November and December benefited from the October rains, and provided
eighteen additions to the list, and as eleven of these were species associated
with leaves it could be concluded that the effects of the long drought had been
removed at last. Of the additional species recorded in November Arcyria
cinerea (Bulliard) Pers. occurs both on wood and leaves, and the other
species appearing on leaves were Didymium difforme (Pers.) Duby, D.
melanospermum (Pers.) Macbride, D. squamulosum (Albertini and Schweinitz)
Fr. and Lamproderma scintillans (Berkeley and Broome) Morgan; these four
being recorded in the last week of the month. Two of the December entrants
to the list, Lamproderma violaceum (Fr.) Rost. and Trichia contorta (Ditmar)
Rost., were found both on leaves and wood, and the other species on leaves
were Physarum cinereum Pers., P. bitectum Lister, Craterium minutum (Leers.)
Fr., C. leucocephalum Ditm. (possibly var. scyphoides Lister), Diderma
effusum (Schw.) Morg., D. deplanatum Fr. and Didymium anellus Morg.
After the end of November the leaf beds near the Warren, Loughton,
were a rich hunting-ground not only in the number of species but in the
abundance of some species of the genera Didymium and Lamproderma.
At 31 December forty-nine species had been recorded, and January and
February produced five more only. With the exception of Badhamia panicea