PRINCIPALLY IN THE NEIGHIIOLtrhOOD OF FELSTEAD. TQI 



sufificient proof of the paucity of individuals in that colony. I feel 

 also confident in speaking of the effects in a much wider field (say 

 Essex generally) of the drought on the above-named species of 

 Z. palustris. This mollusc is a lover of very shallow water, and is 

 now getting very restricted and rare in many places. The con- 

 ditions for keeping areas of bog and marsh in Essex are becoming 

 yearly more difficult. Starting early in March with a limited area of 

 this kind, that area had shrunk materially by the time September 

 was reached, and it is very problematical whether any species that 

 might have inhabited that margin of shrinkage escaped. In ordinary 

 years, or even in moderate droughts, the mud remains moist and 

 protects the organisms, but this resort here failed. A land species 

 in my neighbourhood. Helix arbustorum, requires very much the 

 same kind of habitat, and is in a similar condition. Of three small 

 colonies observed, one has totally failed, and a second thought to 

 have failed in consequence of the drought. The other, though 

 small, has resources which were denied to the others, and will 

 probably live on. 



We will now turn to plant organisms, or rather to flowering 

 plants in particular, dividing even these for the purposes of our 

 notes into trees and herbs. 



In treating of both we may remark that they furnish a kind of 

 index as to the state of the underground circulation of water and 

 to the depth to which the drought extended. Thus, so far as trees 

 go, there is reason to believe that they knew nothing of the lack of 

 water at the roots, and were probably benefited by a dry atmosphere. 

 In some meadows a very curious effect was observable. Where the 

 land was undrained and moist the grass kept green, and contrasted 

 strangely with the drier parts of the meadow. In one meadow at 

 Leighs Priory so much of the grass died as to reveal the contour of 

 some old foundations on which the original Priory was built. This 

 I think proves that all the moisture obtained by grass and the 

 smaller vegetation in general was obtained by an upward circulation 

 of water acting perhaps by capillary attraction. \\'here there was a 

 possibility of cutting off this upward circulation, as in the case of the 

 buried foundations, the plants died. 



The cereal crops in those districts in which the drought was 

 greatest have signally failed. This failure is not so well understood 

 in the case of wheat, as it is proverbial that dry weather suits that 

 crop, and moreover it is known that wheat strikes some of its roots 



