NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



133 



strip extending for three or four feet, in an irregular mass. It 

 has a nodulose appearance, ochrey yellow or flesh colour. The 

 nodules produce long spines, which are covered by the hymenium 

 producing the spores. It has been forwarded from Chelmsford 

 by Mr. Fred. Chittenden, to the scientific committee of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, and seems to be the first record of 

 its occurrence in Britain. There is a woodcut in Massee's Plant 

 Diseases (fig. 39). According to Thuemen, this fungus is very 

 frequently destructive to apple trees, and is presumably a wound 

 fungus, the spores entering through a wound, or fissure of the 

 bark, and soon becoming developed. An allied species, Hydmim 

 ■divevsidens, was found on beech in Epping Forest a few 

 years ago. 



From the same source, the flowers of Clematis jackmanni (?) 

 were sent, infested with a white mould, which has been named 

 Ovulavia clematidis (Chitt.) forming whitish patches on the petals, 

 from 2 to 4 centimetres in diameter. The conidia are 

 elliptically cylindrical, with rounded ends 28—42x14—16 

 micromillemetres, and large for the genus. — M. C. Cooke, 

 LL.D., A.L.S., September, 1903. 



Gigantic Mushroom. — The Daily Mail is responsible for 

 the following : " A pink-tinted mushroom over one foot in 

 diameter and weighing 2lb. loz. Avas picked by Mr. Death on 

 Snails Hall Farm, Billericay, Essex, yesterday morning, 

 August 25th." This was probably a specimen of Agavicns 

 ^rvensis, the " Horse Mushroom," which often grows to a great 

 size. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



The Relative Age of the Thames Valley Stone 

 Implements. — At the meeting of the Essex Field Club on 

 April 4th last, I exhibited a series of the various groups of 

 implements, — Eoliths," Hill Group," " Acheulian," '•Mousterian" 

 and " Rock Shelter," — from various spots in the Thames Valley. 

 Mr. Hinton and I have been studying the gravels of the Valley 

 from a physical standpoint, and we have arrived at certain 

 conclusions as to their age. I have ventured to apply the results 

 of that work to the study of the stone implements found in these 



