NOTES— ORIGINAL AND SKLECTED. 45 



superior, for its edible qualities, to the common mushroom. The 

 individual in question measured fifty-one inches in circum- 

 ference, which would be equivalent to a diameter of seventeen 

 inches, and its weight was over three pounds. It is not un- 

 common during a wet season to meet with specimens twelve 

 inches in diameter, and even more, but I sliould consider the 

 above to be abnormally large. Rather a full dish or a bachelor's 

 breakfast. — M. C. Cooke, LL.D., A.L.S., Sept. ist, 1902. 



Fungoid Disease in Hornbeams. — In continuation of my 

 paper " An enquiry into the cause of the Death of Birch trees 

 in Epping Forest and elsewhere " (Essex Nat., vol. xi., pp. 

 273-284), I may mention that on several occasions this autumn, 

 while making further notes on the progress of the disease that 

 has destroyed so many birch trees, I have noticed several Horn- 

 beams either partly dead, or quite so, in many parts of the Forest ; 

 notably in Lord's Bushes, Rushy Plain, Gilbert's Slade, and Bury 

 Wood. At first it seemed probable that death might be due 

 simply to old age, but on closer observations, young trees were 

 found to have suffered as well as the old ones. In some cases, 

 death has occurred since the formation of the fruit this summer. 

 All the dead branches that have been examined, exhibit the 

 hyphal threads of a fungus under the bark. The fungus most 

 common on many of trees was Covticium comedens. — Robert 

 Paulson, October, 1902. 



GEOLOGY. 



East Anglian Tertiary Geology. — Our readers should 

 have their attention called to " A Sketch of the Later Tertiary 

 History of East Anglia," by W. F. Harmer, F.G.S., Proceedings 

 Geologists' Association, Vol. xvii.., Aug. and Nov., 1902 (Stanford, 

 IS. 6d.). Mr. Harmer's " Sketch " (pp. 416-479) is well illustrated 

 by maps and sections ; one map showing the distribution of the 

 Crag around Walton-on-Naze and Harwich. The paper is so 

 full of detail that it hardly admits of an abstract, but it will be 

 found a very valuable one to Essex geologists. Mr. Harmer has. 

 been working at the geology of the Eastern Counties for 30 or 40 

 years. An account of the Excursion of the Association to Suffolk 

 and Norfolk (July 26th to August 5th, 1902) follows in the same 

 part, pp. 480-488. Walton was visited on July 28th. The 

 reports will well repay perusal. 



