162 



The Presidext then said that he had had the pleasure and advantage of 

 spending the day — yesterday — at the Lake with JNIr. Lees, the distinguished 

 botanist, who had done him the honour to come here and attend this meeting 

 of the club. They had taken np their abode at the comfortable fishing 

 quarters of Mr. Henry Pritchard on the common, and he could now bring 

 before their notice some of the spoils they had brought with them. The pike, 

 the perch, and the eels to which they had just done such ample justice, were 

 all caught yesterday or this morning in the Lake, and so they could now 

 testify Llangorse pike were very different from pike in general. They are as 

 firm in flesh as delicate in fl ivour. He who has not tasted one properly 

 stuffed, roasted, or boiled, as we have to-day, direct from Llangorse, can 

 scarcely know how good pike can be. The next trophies I have to show you 

 are some of the wild fowls' eggs that build in its reedy margin. Here are 

 eggs of the loon, or great crested grebe, the Podiceps cristatus, and others of 

 the bald coot, the Fulica atra. The grebe egg is remarkable for the porous 

 character of its shelL The lime seems to have scarcely any glazing or enamel 

 on it, and is moreover of very unequal thickness in different parts of the 

 shell. It is so porous that, although perfectly white when first laid, it becomes 

 very quickly discoloured and stained from the absorption of the dark colour 

 of the decayed weeds with which the nest is built. This one which looks so 

 old and dirty is probably quite fresh. The grebes are very numerous upon 

 the Lake, but their nests are exceedingly difiioult to fiod, or to hpproach 

 when found. The coots are still more abundant, and the eggs more easily 

 obtained. They are of a light brown colour, often with a greenish tint, and 

 numerously spotted over with small dark brown spots. The swans and wild 

 ducks, and plovers and sandpipers breed there, and numerous sea birds are 

 constant visitors and add much to the interest of a row on the lake. It 

 is rather early for water plants, but one of the prettiest objects just now 

 are the red-coloured young growing leaves of the white water lily, the 

 Nymphcea aWa, as contrasted with the light fresh green of the young leaves 

 of the yellow water lily, the Nuphar luiaa. They grow mingled together in 

 great abundance, and when seen in the early morning or evening sun are very 

 beautifuL The President then exhibited a specimen of each plant to the 

 meeting. He next produced a very fine bunch of the marshtrefoil or bog- 

 bean, the Menyantliei trifoUata, and pointed out the abundance of the globe- 

 flower, the Trollius Europaus, in the fields round Talgarth and Llangorse. 

 This was also shown by the room being decorated with large vases of it, and 

 which quite threw into the shade the few whicJh Mr, Lees and himself had 

 been careful to bring from Llangorse as a rare plant. 



The botanical members were very much interested by a small box of 

 orchideous plants, which the President had received that morning by post. 

 W, Leyland Woods, Esq., of Chilgrove, near Chichester, had most kindly 

 forwarded them for exhibition at this meeting. The box contained no less 

 than five specimens of the rare Orchis muscifera, or fly ©rchis, in great 

 freshness and perfection. At first sight it almost seemed as if real flies had 



