SESSION 1899-1900. Ixxiii 



interfered with, but elsewhere, owing to levellins; by the plough 

 and other !ii>eneies, it was not easily traced. It was stated by 

 some autliorities to enclose a considerable area, including the 

 modrrn city of St. Albans, but it could not be traced around it 

 satisfactorily, llunniug as it did in the sanu; general direction — 

 north-east and south-west — as the Devil's Dyke, which, as the 

 crow flies, was only about two miles distant from it, ho thought 

 that it was quite possible for the two excavations to be part of one 

 great earthwork extending from the Vor to the Lea. This Avas, 

 however, pure conjecture, like all the other theories which had 

 been started, for no one really knew auytliing about its origin or 

 the purpose for which it had been constructed.* 



This is the first time the Hertfordshire County Museum has b'een 

 visited by the Society. Opened only so recently as the 15th of 

 ^November, 1899, it is already, with the exception of the room set 

 apart for a lecture-hall, full of objects of interest, chiefly local. 

 Many local auticj^uities which were in private hands in St. Albans 

 have been generously presented, and doubtless many more will 

 follow. Once in the Museum they are secured for the city and 

 county for ever, while otherwise they might be dispersed, as many 

 have been, and by their severance from local associations lose more 

 than half their value. That such objects have been thus secured is 

 alone sufiicient to justify the existence of the Museum. But its 

 educational value is also great, and that is largely augmented by 

 loan collections from the South Kensington Museum. 



The Curators of the Museum are, for JS^atural History, Mr. Gibbs ; 

 for Geology, Mr. Hopkinson ; for Archfeology, Mr. William Page ; 

 and for Technology, Mr. A. Dean ; and under their guidance the 

 objects displayed in these various departments were examined. 



A vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs concluded the meeting. 



Field Meeting, 16th June, 1900. 

 ROTHAMSTED, HARPENDEN. 



The object of this meeting was to visit the Eothamsted Laboratory 

 and experimental fields in order to gain some insight into the 

 methods pursued and to learn something of the results attained. 

 The meeting was under the direction of Mr. W. 11. Carter, who 

 conducted a cycling party from Watford and through St. Albans, 

 where others joined, to llotharasted, and there transferred his 

 responsibility to Mr. J. J. Willis, who first showed the members 

 over the laboratory and then conducted them through the park and 

 experimental fields. 



Only a few points touched upon by Mr. Willis can here be 

 mentioned. He said that all plants from the tiny moss to the large 

 spreaiUng oak require the element nitrogen as food, and that it 

 was formerly thought that plants took this niti'ogen through their 



* For other remarks on Beech Bottom by Mr. Gibbs see ' Transactions,' 

 Vol. IV, p. XX (1887). 



VOL. X. I'ART VIII. F 



