OBITUARY NOTICES 267
He was rarely absent from the Club's field meetings, was always a most
informative companion, and his intent approach to a rotting log, armed
with the large jack-knife which he always carried, made a picture which
will for long remain in our minds.
Wanstead Park was one of his favourite haunts, and it was here that his
keen naturalist's eye led him, in 1945, to notice a dead Sycamore tree
which was covered by a thick deposit of sooty dust. Microscopic examina-
tion of the sooty deposit showed that it consisted of spores, and his
knowledge of fungi told him that here was something unique or at least
very unusual. In due course he interested Dr. P. H. Gregory in this
phenomenon, and the two collaborated in studying the fungus which had
caused the death of the Sycamore and by now was killing many other
trees in the park. The. story of the events which led to the identification
of the fungus as Cryptostroma corticale (Ellis and Everhart) Gregory and
Waller, is told by the collaborators in The Essex Naturalist 29, pp.9-16.
Mr. Waller was elected to the Council of the Club in 1948, and in 195'2
and 1953 acted as Hon. Curator of the Passmore Edwards Museum, where
he carried out much valuable work in arranging various exhibits.
He died, aged 66, on March 26th, 1954, after a very short illness, and
his stalwart efforts to further the interests of the Club in all its work
will be greatly missed.
C.B.P.