Journal of Proceedings. iii
Mr. Worthington Smith sent an original MS. description of two new
species of Agaricus in the handwriting of Elias Fries, the great Swedish
botanist. Mr. Smith wrote :—" As far as I know, the plant referred to in
the first description has not been found elsewhere than in Epping Forest
by myself. Fries, as you see, named the plant 'Andricus (Stropharia)
Worthingtonii,' after me. The second description is the original one of a
new species sent on by me to Fries. He named it ' Agaricus (Entoloma)
Saundersii,' after my friend Mr. W. Wilson Saunders, who lighted on it."
Prof. Boulger said he hoped the Club would carefully collect and
preserve such relics. In his own researches into the history of Botany
he had often found how useful it was to be enabled to identify a hand-
writing.
Mr. English exhibited some flowers and leaves of plants beautifully
preserved with their natural forms and colours by his process, which he
had improved since his communications to the Club. Full details will be
given in his book, now preparing for publication.
Mr. Letchford sent up a specimen of Gordius aquaticus to the Secretary
for identification. He had found it whilst moving some damp earth in
transplanting a rose-bush.*
Mr. W. Cole called attention to a letter from Dr. C. R. Bree, of
Colchester, which appeared in the ' Standard' for January 28th, respecting
the Hawfinch (Coccothraustes vulgaris) in Essex. After referring to the
fact that the bird was more numerous this season than he ever remembered,
Dr. Bree went on to say, "When first discovered in Epping Forest by the
late Mr. Doubleday, the Hawfinch was pretty well confined to that locality
as a breeding-place, at least so far as general knowledge went. Since then
it has gradually come to breed all over the country. I have known it as
a breeder in this neighbourhood for the last ten years. Ambrose, the
local birdstuffer here, tells me he has had upwards of thirty this year.
There are more than twenty now in his shop. He says they come
from all parts of the neighbourhood. One boy caught seven in a garden
near the river, and they can now be had alive. Naturalists will, I am
happy to say, endorse my statements as to other parts of the kingdom.
Unfortunately it is an easy bird to catch in bad weather." In a private
letter to the Secretary, dated February 1st, Dr. Bree adds, "Henry
Doubleday, of Epping, discovered this bird breeding there. It was not
known generally, or there would not have been many left. As stated in
my letter to the ' Standard,' I have known of its breeding near Colchester
for the last ten years. It has occurred during the late severe weather in
* The Gordiacea, or hair-worms (sub-kingdom Annuloida), are parasitic in their earlier
stages in the perivisceral cavities of the bodies of various insects. When sexually
mature they leave their "hosts," and deposit their ova in water or moist earth. The
popular name is expressive of their excessively elongated form, and as they are often
found in water or in puddles after heavy rain, it is a vulgar notion in pome parts that
they are the living embodiments of horse-hairs which, falling into the water, have been,
by a process of "abiogenesis," transformed into worms ! Mr. Letchford's specimen was
fully eight and a half inches long, and of the thickness of ordinary packing-thread, It
lived for several weeks in a vessel of water.—Ed),