xliv Journal of Proceedings.
could only determine it to be a cellular vegetable body similar to some
other low forms of Fungi such as the Yeast and Vinegar Plants, but
apparently distinct from them. He regards it as an immature form of
some species which, when placed in the sugar-and-water mixture usually
employed in the manufacture of the "ginger beer" is under unnatural
conditions, and cannot develope its normal characters. The best plan,
he said, would be to endeavour to grow it comparatively dry, as
then probably it would assume its proper form. Mr. W. G. Smith
stated that the Fungus was well known in several districts, and that it
is occasionally sold in small bottles as a curiosity, but from a cursory
examination he had given it he concluded it was the form of
sedimentary Yeast known as "low Yeast" (Saccharomyces Cerevisia),
with 8. mycoderma, Mucor racemosus, and various Bacilli.* Mr.
Jackson, Curator of the Museums at Kew, has had samples submitted to
him, and is now trying it under various conditions. Dr. Silvester is
also investigating its characters, and has found, as other experimenters
also have, that ground ginger seems beneficial to the growth of the
Fungus, which then decomposes the sugar more rapidly.
Another very remarkable exhibit was a collection of Epping Forest
Fungi from Mr. J. English, prepared and preserved in the excellent
method described in his little manual upon the subject. By this process
the form, colour, and characteristics of the species are admirably
preserved, and, being mounted upon small square blocks of wood,
they have a life-like appearance that is very striking. And a species
of Polyporus (P. umbellatus) previously unknown in Great Britain, but
found by Mr. English in Epping Forest on July 19th, 1883, also
attracted much attention from its very distinct and unusual habit. Mr.
English also showed a series of Epping Forest Mosses. Mr. G. P. Hope
exhibited a large collection of Essex Marine Algae, mostly from Harwich,
Mr. Arthur Bennett contributed an almost complete series of the British
Characeae, including several species only recently recorded for Britain
(and which he very kindly presented to the Club). Miss Marion S. Ridley
sent a very complete herbarium of British Ferns, and the Club's collec-
tion of Flowering-plants of the Forest preserved by Mr. English's
process, was also shown. Mr. E. M. Holmes exhibited a series of
type specimens of British Mosses. Mr. Hildebrand Ramsden showed
two books of botanical specimens, one containing (inter alia) a small
collection of mosses from Epping Forest gathered by E. Forster early in
the century, and another containing plants mostly from Essex "ex herb.
Christy." Mr. D. Houston, among many other objects, showed some
* Mr. Smith proposed that the ginger-beer plant should he named Zingibeerophora
spumacephala, Worth. Sm., and he wrote out the following amusing diagnosis to
accompany the name:—" Alba, mucilaginosa, videtur esse suspicabillima et faedissima;
odorem habens gratum sicut Zingiberis. Vescitur quotidie zingibere pertunso cum aqua
saccharata. Habitat in lecythis vitreis apud officinal domorum subterranea*. Matura
sonitu subitaneo corticem expeleit. Iis nempe edibilis quibus feliciter Di ilia equina
dederint."