13.
to me was a hemiparasitic plant, which, although it
contains chlorophyll and can make its own food,
attaches itself to the roots of grasses from which it
obtains nourishment. This was the red bantsia
(Odontites verna) which was also in flower.
If any members of our predominantly bird-watching party
read this, I hope they will be reminded of some of the
plants we were tripping over whilst intent upon the
redpolls, linnets and yellow hammers which depend
eventually on the plants for their survival.
A. D. Boniface
20th August 1975 Street House
Stoke-by-Nayland
Colchester
Letter to the Editors, Essex Field Club Bulletin
Dear Sirs,
There are 17 members of the Essex Field Club who volun-
teer to gather field information from fellow-members
for permanent record in "The Naturalist". For
alphabetical reasons, Archaeology heads the list and
since 1959 I have been appointed Recorder in that
discipline. I have had singularly little work to do
in the past sixteen years, only two or three items
having been sent to me. I have faithfully supplied
notes and photographs of these to the Naturalist, but
surely more of our Members with self-confessed interest
in Archaeology have encountered material worthy of
record in the Naturalist.
It is true that there are other Essex societies
specifically archaeological in purpose, and that the
Essex Field Club is the premier society, primarily
interested in the Biology of the County, but histori-
cally we have never rejected the Geology, Archaeology
or Ecclesiology of Essex; from the earliest days of the
Field Club, these interests were prominent as Botany or
Zoology. This year we have substantially the same
number of field-meetings devoted to Botany as to Zoology