15 



number of bacteria enter the blood at once they 

 are destroyed, but when they enter in large 

 numbers or are virulent in their nature then they 

 have the best of the struggle, and the organism is 

 destroyed. It has been estimated that in large 

 towns a man inhales :i7,000,000 germs in 

 ten hours. Compared with the air of 

 Heme Bay, microbes are present in the 

 the London atmosphere in the proportion of 1.3,11" lO 

 to one. These organisms belong to a division of 



the vegetable kingdom, and have probably 

 degenerated from the Algse. It is believed 

 that through various conditions of nutrition and 

 stages of development they have gone through 

 they have undergone a change, and taken a new 

 mode of life and instead of being members of 

 healthy vegetable life they have become a pestil- 

 ence and a canker. 



A hearty vote of thanks to the lecturer and a 

 short discussion brought the meeting to a close. 



TWELFTH WINTER MEETING— MARCH 2sth, 1902. 



"THE CHAEil OF OUR WOODLANDS." 

 By Mr. C. Buckingham. 



A very interesting lecture entitled as above was 

 given on March 2.5 by Mr. C. Buckingham, and 

 was illustrated by means of about seventy 

 magnificent lantern sli.les taken by the lecturer 

 in Epping Forest and the woodlands around. 

 The chair was takes by Mr. "W. P. Mann, and 

 among those present were ; — Miss Cole, Miss 

 Harvey, Miss Cozens, Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Snell, Mrs. 

 Bowler, Rev. Dr. Greaves, Messrs. W. Surry, T. G. 

 Marsh, "W. H. Fiddian, W. G. Austen, F. C. Snell, 

 etc. 



Mr. Bucfcinghim thought that among the 

 beauties of Nature few surpassed the charms 

 of their woodlands, and to be among trees 

 and flowers, birds and insects, studying Nature's 

 marvellous works, was one of the deepest joys 

 of life. The continual succession of pictures 

 and wonders of interest Nature provided for them 

 showed how interesting to all lovers of Nature 

 their woodlands were in every season of the year. 

 He wished to include one of England's prima;val 

 forests^ (Epping Foiest) with their nearer wood- 

 lands, for it seemed that they must look chiefly to 

 their protected forests for a chance of retaining 

 much of their wild life. He had spent several 

 days rambling through the unfrequented parts of 

 Epping Forest, and it was interesting to see how 

 this beautiful place had been saved from destruc- 

 tion. One here found trees and plants striving 

 with their heredity directing force and modi- 

 fying their form and feature through interaction 

 with their surroundings. Here Nature sowed 

 her own seeds, and those most suitable to soil 

 tended to gain supremacy, many seeds falling in 

 unsuitable places and many young shoots choking 

 among undergrowth. Trees combined overhead 

 and smaller plants were smothered. Trees strived 

 against other species, prevailed, and then strived 

 against one another till the hardiest and loftiest 

 alone survived. What seemed to him a great 

 charm in Epping Forest was the retention of 

 decaying trees— trees which had died of disease cr 

 had been overthrown by the forces of Nature. 

 Each one they met with had its own tale to tell of 

 its failure or its ruin, as well as the vigorous 

 successful youth by its side. According to report, 

 no doubt the polecat, badger, martin, foi, weasel, 

 otter, and many other scarce animals still found a 



home there, but the most charming animals were 

 probably the deer. Among the thousands of species 

 of insects he thought the most noticed and enjoyed 

 were the butterflies and moths, and in their 

 (specially old) woodlands they found a go 'd vai iety 

 of woodland butterfles and hundreds of speciei of 

 moth. He thought it sad to find that in most 

 counties many species seemed doomed to diminish, 

 but. thanks again to their forests, at least a few 

 rare species seem to be on the increase. What a 

 pretty sight it was to see a butterfly asleep in the 

 early morning, with its wings so contracted that 

 one would hardly notice it. When one found the 

 eggs deposited on just the food plant which the 

 caterpillars would reijuire when hatched, one 

 wondered how the parent knew the food plant her 

 offspring would require, when she did not feed on 

 it herself. Could she remember the food plant on 

 which she fed when in the larva state ? There 

 were many things one had to pass by in the insect 

 wcrld unsolved. There was one thing the searcher 

 would soon notice, and that was the way in which 

 nearly all insect life mimiced their surroundings, 

 for sake of protection. How interesting it was to 

 study all creeping, leaping, and winged insects in 

 their mimicing of the surrounding vegetation, so 

 closely as to deceive their enemies I Stingless flies 

 mimic3d stinging wasps, while caterpillars were 

 diflicult to find owing to their likeness to the food 

 plant. Moths resembled the bark of trees, sticks, 

 and leaves, and each creature either had enemies 

 which sought to feed upon it or that it sought 

 itself to feed upon others. In most cases they only 

 escaped by avoiding observation. He had read 

 much about the beauties of tropical forests with 

 their glorious extiavagance of flowers and foliage, 

 but the English traveller would miss sadly the 

 song of the home birds, and the rich tints of 

 Autumn. The uniformity of climate which caused 

 the abundance also caused a monotony which soon 

 became oppressive. So much then had they to be 

 thankful for, that ti.eir climate brought them that 

 continual succession of which he thought they 

 were all naturally fond. He thought that if the 

 oak was the king of the forest, the birch ought to 

 be the queen. Foremost in all his woodland 

 thoughts did these silver birches of Epping Forest, 

 with the rich undergrowth of bracken, come into 



