NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. T53 



varieties. I have foiinJ not only such as have throughout the five-fold sj-ni- 

 metr}-, seen by Mr. Unthank at Brightlingsea, but have with me on the 

 '■ Glimpse " specimens stained and mounted as lantern-slides, having entire 

 three-fold and entire six-fold symmetry, and one in which it is partially two-fold. 

 I think it may be said that in Suffolk and Essex a few such abnormal varieties 

 occur per thousand of the normal. .\n imperfect four-fold symmetry is much 

 more common.'" Mr. Unthank adds to the above : " In Baleson's ' Materials for 

 the Study of \'ariation ' Aurelia is stated to be commonly variable, and Ehrenberg 

 mentioned as putting the pentamerous variation at 3 per cent. — much lower than 

 Prof. Herdman's ' four or five out of twelve.' Out of 1,763 specimens thrown up 

 on the shore at Northumberland, 1,735 specimens (I think) were nt)rmal, and 

 onl}- I per cent, pentamerous."] 



Silene Conica. Lin. — I found this plant growing freely in a field of crim- 

 son c\.o\tx {Tri folium iiicarnatnm, Lin.) near this town. I believe this is the firs'- 

 time that this plant has been recorded in this county, h is a rare plant, found 

 only in the Eastern counties, and occasionally in ballast hills farther north. Pro- 

 bably it has only recently been introduced into this locality, but seed vessels 

 having been freely formed it may become established. — J. C. Shenstone, Col- 

 chester. [In Gibson's " Flora of Essex " it is stated that " D. French has a 

 specimen of this species gathered near Harlow Bury House, in 1858. It was 

 only once found." — Ed.] 



The Bedford's Oak, Havering-atte-Bower. — Mr. D T. Bruton wrote 

 on 29th of November, 1893 : — " I don't know whether the fact has been re- 

 ported to you, but during the gale of Saturday night and Sunday morning the 

 great old oak in the grounds of " Bedfords," the seat of James Theobald, Esq., 

 M.P., was rent in half from the top to the bottom. It had a wonderful hale- 

 looking top, being alive in every branch ; was a great feature in the grounds, and 

 highly prized. The view from it is one of the finest the kingdom of Essex 

 could command, and is to-day one of the noblest, richest, and mo t beautiful of 

 industrial England, commanding as it does the Thames Valley between London 

 and the sea, all laden and aglow like a heavenh' shore. 



"The trunk of the old oak measured twenty-seven feet in circumference at 

 the smallest part. The base was encircled with a rustic seat." 



In a subsequent letter Mr. Bruton remarks : — " So far as I know, the history 

 of the oak is unwritten. It is a very remarkable specimen, and is adjudged to be 

 quite a thousand years old [? Ed.], and so must have been a good-sized tree 

 before the Saxon line of English kings came to an end. Hence my remark that 

 Edward the King and Confessor of canonized memory may have read and medi- 

 tated beneath its spreading boughs. For here at Havering, the centre of the 

 old Heptarchic Kingdom of Essex, stood the palace where he sometimes resided 

 as did many other of our English kings. It is a very lovely spot, and those who 

 first selected it, in the days when the land was all before them where they chose 

 to dwell, showed an appreciative taste. 



"To recur, however, to the old tree. Truly it is a grand specimen of an oak. 

 The trunk, or body, was shapely, and of a good, fair height, with a noble and 

 symmetrical head of nevertheless very gnarled branches, a very study of a hardy 

 gi-Jnt of centuries' growth, that had withstood storm and tempest, winter and rough 

 weather. Several drawings were made of it last summer by an artist named 

 Johnson, then residing in the village. A good photograph was also taken by 

 Mr. Smee, the successor of Mr. Porter, photographer of Manor Park. 



M 



