ANNUAL RETORT. 245 



works at Tottenham and Walthamstow — the arrangements made by Mr. 

 Sharrock for the comfort of the Members were most thorough and welcome. 

 At the Annual Cryptogamic Meeting on October 12th we again secured the 

 ever welcome assistance of Dr. M. C. Cooke and Mr. G. Massee and Prof. 

 Marshall Ward gave an inspiring address on the " Scientific Study of Fungi." 

 At the Ordinary Meeting in October, Prof. Meldola gave a lecture on 

 " Mimetic Insects," which was admirably illustrated by a very fine series of 

 lantern slides, many of them produced by the Sanger- Shepherd process of 

 photography in colour, the specimens from which they were taken having 

 been arranged by Prof. E. B. Poulton, of the Hope Museum, Oxford. 



The papers read at the meetings have been, or will be, published in our 

 journal. 



Although a matter hardly officially connected with our Field Meetings, 

 the Council cannot refrain from recording the very kind invitation for the 

 meeting at Bigods on July 24th given to the members of the Club by the 

 Countess of Warwick, which was highly appreciated by those who accepted 

 the invitation. 



The Council also wish again to record their high appreciation of the 

 valuable facilities for holding meetings in the Institute granted by the 

 Technical Instruction .Committee of the Borough of West Ham, And the 

 kindness of the Principal, Mr. Briscoe, has been most marked during the year, 

 enabling our meetings to be carried with a facility and success not to be 

 equalled in the history of the Club. 



Essex Naturalist. — Three parts of the journal were published during 

 the year, comprising 234 pages, with six full-page plates and numerous other 

 illustrations. The Council has to thank Mr. F. W. Reader for several 

 valuable blocks, for much care taken in copying drawings for re-production 

 and generally in assisting the editor in preparing matter for the press ; also 

 Mr. H. A. Cole for drawing of the Dug-out Boat discovered in the Alluvium 

 of the Lea Valley. 



The somewhat irregular appearance of the Essex Naturalist is still 

 a source of great regret to the editor, but he hopes to remedy this soon, as 

 the pressure of other work in connection with the two museums is lessened. 

 But the amount of matter issued is evidently almost the maximum which the 

 present financial resources of the Club will permit. There appears to be no 

 falling off in the number of papers of real scientific and local interest sent in, 

 and if it were in our power to print them many others would doubtless be sub- 

 mitted. The editor would also like to have a few illustrations in colour 

 occasionally and to make the records of local scientific events occurring 

 within our districts more systematic and complete. But this is impossible, 

 from the cause hinted at above. We can only have faith and await the 

 " Good time coming." At present the hope seems bound up with an increase 

 of membership. One hundred more members would enable us to nearly 

 double the present issue of the Naturalist and to mould it more into the 

 form of a quarterly journal of Natural History in a wide sense of these 

 words. 



Essex Museum of Natural History. — The history of affairs at the 

 Museum was brought up to the end of 1900 in the last report, and a full 

 account of the opening of the Museum to the public on October i8th, 1901, 



