The deadline for the second round of monitoring is the end of December 2006, and by
this time a clearer understanding of what exactly is required should have emerged. It
remains to be seen whether Local Authorities whose reports are deemed insufficient will
be penalised, or if extra resources will be made available to help develop a county/
regional approach.
Annual Monitoring is just one part of an enhanced biodiversity package Local Authorities
are expected to deliver. However, if central government is as serious about wildlife as
the new policies suggest, Local Authorities will have no choice but to develop their own
in-house expertise or to invest more heavily in ongoing projects* which will help them
to fulfil their new role.
*The Biological Records Initiative for Essex (BRIE), the Essex Biodiversity Project,
and the Essex Local Wildlife Sites Partnership.
Bluebottles (non dipterous)
David Bloomfield Hortons, Mascalls Lane, South Weald, Brentwood CM14 5LJ
For over 40 years I was puzzled by a field called Bluebottles, but when I found it was
another name for Cornflower Centaurea cyanus my interest was immediately satisfied.
While I was trying to tease out a knotty problem about Prunus taxonomy, I had found
the fact that Bladder or White Campion Silene vulgaris was also known as Whitebottle
in Ray's Flora of Cambridgeshire. The next day I went past Warren Farm, Writtle, which
was the only place I had seen Cornflowers growing in Wheat earlier in the year. A few
years ago Sunflowers and Cornflowers had been grown for sale to passing people. This
enterprise had moved over the road and I decided to stop on the way back to look
closely at the flowers to try to find out why the word bottle was used.This was immediately
obvious when 1 noticed the round future seed case below the flower, similar to the
bladder of White Campion. I returned to Ray's flora but found no more bottles. I did
however remember Brandy Bottle Nuphar lutea, which I easily understood. Ray's flora
explained the brandy part "the flower of this plant smells of a distilled liquor which they
popularly call 'aquavitae' (brandy)".
A look at the volumes of the Oxford English Dictionaiy told me little more, but I seem
to be aware the earliest glass bottles were blown, and of necessity, round.
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 51, September 2006