"WATFORD NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



xliii 



The follo\Ying paper was read: — 



"Bees and Bee-keeping." By the Rev. Herbert E. Peel, M.A. 

 {Fide -p. 183.) 



In the discussion which ensued, the President, Dr. Brett, Mr. 

 Arthur Cottam, and Mr. Littleboy, took part. 



Models of the hives, and other appliances, recommended for 

 adoption by bee-keepers, were exhibited by Mr. Peel. 



Field MEETiNa, 3ed May, 1879. 

 Abbot's Langlet and Leayesden. 



Amongst other objections to the formation of a Natural History 

 Society at Watford, when first proposed in 1875, it was urged that 

 there was so little of interest in the neighbourhood, and indeed in 

 Hertfordshire, that in a year or two every locality worth exploring 

 would have been visited by the Society. All interest in the field 

 meetings, it was predicted, would then cease, for the members 

 would not care twice to go over the same ground. It is now the 

 fifth year of the Society's existence, and this, like other adverse 

 predictions, has so far proved groundless. Although one or two 

 localities have been visited more than once, it has not yet been 

 necessary to take the same route twice. 



And not only is this the case, but how many localities have yet 

 to be visited, even in the immediate neighbourhood of Watford. 

 Aldenham, Radlett, and Shenley, in one direction ; Chipperfield, 

 Red Heath, and Chorley AVood, in another ; and in a third. Leaves- 

 den, the Langleys, and Bedmont, may be mentioned as places in 

 that small south-western corner of Hertfordshire in which Watford 

 is situated, which have not been visited in the first four years of 

 the existence of the Society. 



On this occasion one of the directions above named was taken, 

 and the members met at King's Langley station for a walk towards 

 Bedmont, by Abbot's Langley, and through the Leavesden Woods 

 to Watford. 



Almost immediately on leaving the station the fields were taken 

 towards Bedmont, and a considerable ascent was made from the 

 alluvial plain forming the bottom of the valley of the Gade. The 

 road from Abbot's Langley to Bedmont was reached at a spot 

 where there is an outlier of the Lower Tertiaries, — one of those 

 outliers which have been alluded to in reports of previous field 

 meetings as affording evidence of the former extent of the London 

 Tertiary beds over a very much larger area than at present, from 

 which ihey have been removed by denudation. 



At Abbot's Langley the principal object of interest was an old 

 horse-chestnut tree, many of the branches of which have taken root 

 and sprung up again, their size and vigour beyond the points at 

 which they have rooted showing that they are deriving nourish- 

 ment from these secondary roots. The area covered by this tree 



