lxii
Journal of Proceedings.
was funicularis, but I have forgotten to mention this to my friends. I
noticed A. (Pleurotus) spongiosus, a species well marked by being softer
than its congeners. A Flammula was found, which I should be disposed
to call A. (Flam.) alnicola : Mr. Plowright, however, inclined to A. (Flam.)
inopus as the rightful name. I found a great mass of Lactarius quietus.
Russula fellea, with pileus and stem both straw-coloured, and Russula
ochroleuca, with stem cinereous, are both well-marked species. As I
walked to the station we passed several places near the ' Loughton Camp '
where charcoal had been burnt: these are often good places for fungus
hunting ; in fact the whole of the ground in the hollow beneath the
Camp [Debden Slade, &c.] looked to me very promising." Some pigs
were espied busily turning the ground under the Beeches with their
snouts, and Mr. English had the curiosity to examine their workings.
Piggy had overlooked in his eagerness one specimen of Elaphomyces
granulatus, an interesting truffle-like tuber, and the clue being thus
afforded, Mr. Plowright speedily found plenty of examples by a little
persevering raking up of the soil.
Mr. E. M. Holmes, F.L.S., noticed several species of Mosses, by far the
most noteworthy being Zygodon forsteri. In the 'Journal of Botany'
for November, 1882, Mr. Holmes gave the following account of this im-
portant resuscitation of a long-lost species, which we extract by kind per-
mission of the author :—
Zygodon Forsteri, Mitten, in Essex.
"On the occasion of the Annual Fungus Foray in Epping Forest, on
the 23rd of September, 1882, I met with this rare moss in fructification ;
and, as its occurrence in Essex has hitherto been only conjectural, its re-
discovery in that county seems worthy of record.
"In Wilson's 'Bryologia Brit.,' p. 194, Walthamstow and Sussex are
mentioned as two localities in which it had been found. A much more
correct account might have been given had Mr. Wilson not ignored Mr.
Mitten's remarks, published four years previously, in the ' Annals and
Magazine of Natural History ' for 1851 (2nd series, viri., 322).
" The history of the discovery of this plant in Britain I believe to be
as follows :—Mr. T. F. Forster found a specimen of the plant on a felled
tree in a timber yard at Chapel End Lane, Walthamstow, there being no
record where the tree was obtained. The specimens gathered by him were
distributed to Dickson, Borrer, Sir J. E. Smith, and others. One of these
occurs in Dickson's Herbarium, and another among the original speci-
mens used for ' English Botany,' both of which collections are in the
Botanical Department of the British Museum; but neither of these
specimens bears any date on the label. A third specimen exists in Mr.
Borrer's Herbarium at Kew. The plant must, however, have been
collected previously to 1791, as Dickson's 'Fasciculi' were published in
that year. There are no specimens of the plant in Wilson's Herbarium
(also in the British Museum) nor in that of Mr. Jenner, now in the pos-
session of Mr. C. P. Smith, of Brighton. That gentleman informs me
that Jenner's plant was identified by Mr. Mitten. Mr. Mitten kindly
referred me to his paper, above cited, and tells me that Mr. Jenner
gathered the moss during an extended ramble, but whether in Sussex,
Hampshire, Kent, or Surrey, it could only be conjectured, as the large