O ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 



Our Club indeed has became rather famous for its annual' 

 Fungus Forays in the Forest. Some of the common fungi of 

 Epping Forest are so conspicuous as to attract general 

 attention, and it should always be the object of our Museum to 

 enable a student — or even a chance visitor — to identify any 

 natural object which he may find in the course of a Forest 

 ramble. In the Museum at Chingford there is a good collection 

 of preserved specimens of the local fungi, accompanied by 

 coloured drawings, and well displayed in a series of wall-cases. 

 Some of the specimens, I believe, were prepared by that skilful 

 naturalist, the late Mr. English, of Epping. Nor should we 

 omit to notice the set of original drawings of flowerless plants, 

 executed specially for the Museum by our veteran friend, Dr. M. 

 C. Cooke. This series of large drawings, framed and glazed, is 

 mounted on screens in the Upper Room of the Museum, where it 

 offers in an attractive form much information to the visitor. 



So far as the zoology of Epping Forest is concerned, popular 

 interest seems to centre in the Insects — if, at least, we may judge 

 from the large number of visitors who carry butterfly-nets and 

 other entomological gear. The Curator, whom we all know tO' 

 be an enthusiastic entomologist himself, has done well to 

 minister to their tastes by a remarkably fine display in the Oak 

 Room Here the instructive specimens illustrating the life- 

 history of the Forest butterflies and moths, with their food- 

 plants, is especially noteworthy. As most insects suffer 

 deterioration by the action of light, they are here preserved in 

 flat glass-cases, which are provided with covers that may be freely 

 opened by the public, whilst the covers themselves are glazed 

 and serve for the display of a most attractive series of coloured 

 plates of insects, taken, I believe, from Curtis's Entomology, 

 The effect of this admirable method of utilizing the covers of the 

 cases contrasts very favourably with the ordinary practice of 

 screening the specimens from light by means of moveable covers 

 of American cloth, or other opaque material — a method which 

 is rather unsightly and decidedly uninstructive. 



With regard to the Mollusc a, reference should be made to the 

 fine collection of land and fresh- water shells from the woods and 

 lanes, the ponds and streams, of the Forest District, which has 

 been on loan for many years by the courtesy of Mr. Walter 

 Crouch, by whom they were collected and to whom the Museum. 



