.Journal of l'roceedin(/s. m 



Mr. Worthington Smith sent an original MS. description of two new 

 species of Agarlcm in the handwriting of EUas Fries, the great Swedish 

 botanist. Mr. Smith wrote :— " As far as I know, the plant refen-ed to m 

 the first description has not been found elsewhere than in Epping Forest 

 by myself. Fries, as you see, named the plant ' Agaricm (Strojyharia) 

 Worthimitonii,' after me. The second description is the original one of a 

 new species sent on by me to Fries. He named it 'Agaricm [Kntoloma) 

 Sau)ider>iii,' after my friend Mr. W. Wilson Saunders, who lighted on it." 



Prof. Boulger said he hoped the Club would carefully collect and 

 preserve such relics. In his own researches into the history of Botany 

 he had often found how useful it was to be enabled to identify a hand- 



writinp. 



Mr. EngHsh exhibited some flowers and leaves of plants beautifully 

 preserved with their natural forms and colours by his process, which he 

 had improved since his communications to the Club. Full details will be 

 given in his book, now preparing for publication. 



Mr. Letchford sent up a specimen of Gordius aquaticm to the Secretary 

 for identification. He had found it whilst moving some damp earth in 

 transplanting a rose-bush.* 



Mr. W. Cole called attention to a letter from Dr. C. R. Bree, of 

 Colchester, which appeared in the ' Standard ' for January 28th, respecting 

 the Hawfinch (Coccothraustes vulgaris) in Essex. After referring to the 

 fact that the bird was more numerous this season than he ever remembered. 

 Dr. Bree went on to say, "When first discovered in Epping Forest by the 

 late Mr. Doubleday, the Hawfinch was pretty well confined to that locahty 

 as a breeding-place, at least so far as general knowledge went. Since then 

 it has gradually come to breed all over the country. I have known it as 

 a breeder in this neighbourhood for the last ten years. Ambrose, the 

 local birdstuft'er here, tells me he has had upwards of thirty this year. 

 There are more than twenty now in his shop. He says they come 

 from all parts of the neighbourhood. One boy caught seven in a garden 

 near the river, and they can now be had aUve. Naturalists will, I am 

 happy to say, endorse my statements as to other parts of the kingdom. 

 Unfortunately it is an easy bird to catch in bad weather." In a private 

 letter to the Secretary, dated February 1st, Dr. Bree adds, "Henry 

 Doubleday, of Epping, discovered this bird breeding there. It was not 

 loiown generally, or there would not have been many left. As stated in 

 my letter to the ' Standard,' I have known of its breeding near Colchester 

 for the last ten years. It has occurred during the late severe weather in 



* The Gordiacea, or hair-worms (sub-kingdom Annuloida), are parasitic in their earlier 

 stages in the perivisceral cavities of the bodies of various insects. When sexually 

 mature they leave their " hosts," and deposit their ova in water or moist earth. The 

 popular name is expressive of their excessively elongated form, and as they are often 

 found in water or in puddles after heavy rain, it is a vulgar notion in some parts that 

 they are the living embodiments of horse-hairs which, falling into the water, have been, 

 by a process of " abiogenesis," transformed into worms 1 Mr. Letchford's specimen was 

 fully eight and a half inches long, and of the thickness of ordinary packing-thread. It 

 lived for several weeks in a vessel of water.— Ku. 



