216 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
He also announced that the number of vacancies on the Council
which, on acount of retirements under the rules was three, had been
increased to four by the recent sudden death of Dr. Hayward. He
stated that Dr. Alvin and Mr. Oxenham had been nominated, and that
further nominations might be made during the meeting.
Mr. Williams related that he had found two specimens of the Sea
Gooseberry at Skipper's Island recently. He thought that this was an
early date for the animal to occur in coastal waters.
Dr. Nisbet gave a short account of the Sea Gooseberry including some
intimation of the modern opinion of its place in the classification.
The President exhibited a copy of the printed notice of the Club's
first Fungus Foray in 1880. It was copiously illustrated by Mr. Worth-
ington Smith with humourous drawings referring to mycologists of the
day.
Mr. E. Bangerter of the Department of Botany, British (Museum Natural
History), then gave a lecture on "Some common alien flowering plants".
He said that on this occasion he intended to select plants which were
known to have been introduced; many had been introduced through horti-
culture, others through industry and by other agencies. He showed
coloured lantern slides of the plants prepared by the late Colonel
Green and now belonging to the British Museum and also diagrams
drawn by himself of the plants with which he dealt. He gave an
account of the recent distribution of each plant and of the probable
reasons for its spread and explained the difficulties in distinguishing some
of the closely related species. He also indicated certain groups which
would repay closer study by any member who could specialise in this
way.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (1017th MEETING)
Saturday, March 29th, 1958
This meeting at the West Ham College of Technology was attended
by twenty-eight members. The chair was taken by the President.
Mr. E. E. Syms.
Mrs. V. C. Masefield. of 38, Pentland Avenue, Chelmsford, was
elected to membership of the Club.
Dr. Nisbet told of a recent visit by some of the Club's Recorders
to Skipper's Island by invitation of Mr. E. F. Williams. He stated
that tests of the water of "Heronry Pond" had given the surprisingly
high pH value of 8.5 and salinity of 0.555 per cent. Samples of the
water had been collected and had produced fourteen species of algae and
two protozoa. Several marine animals had been taken on the shore-line.
The water in the shoreward channel showed a salinity of 3.07 per cent.
Mr. Bernard Ward showed a foetus of Fallow Deer from an Epping
Forest doe which it had been necessary to destroy. The foetus is being
preserved and will later be shown in the Epping Forest Museum.