Proceedings. 97 



A long walk over Thursley Common, past Silk Mill, 

 brought us to Witley, where we took the train home. 



A rather good find on Thursley Common was a Cotton- 

 grass, Eriophomm vaginatum, which was plentiful round the 

 margin of a pond on the heath ; this plant, according to 

 Brewer's ' Flora,' has only four other localities in Surrey. 

 This brought to a close a really most enjoyable Bank Holiday 

 ramble. 



One of the rarest of British plants, belonging to the great 

 Pea tribe, tempted us one afternoon last July to make a 

 rather unusually long journey of thirty miles. The plant 

 I refer to is Lathy rus tuberosus, and. its locality is Fy field, 

 but Ongar is the nearest railway approach. 



As far as I know, this locality and two others, one on 

 Canvey Island, the other near Southend, all in the county of 

 Essex, are the only places where this very rare plant grows. 

 According to some it is a doubtful native, but at any rate in 

 the Fyfield locality, where it is spread over a considerable 

 area, if introduced, it has become well naturalized. 



Arrived at Ongar then, a three mile walk along the high 

 road brought us to the pretty little village of Fyfield. The 

 first plant worth mentioning that turned up was a variety of 

 the Common Water Plantain, called lanceolatum, having 

 lanceolate leaves in place of the ordinary heart-shaped ones. 

 This form grew in ditches by the high road. 



As the locality for the Lathynis was described as "corn- 

 fields about Fyfield," of course, as soon as we reached that 

 place, we left the road, and took footpaths that led through 

 several " likely-looking " fields of wheat and oats. Here we 

 came across a very nice plant, in the shape of the Night- 

 flowering Catchfly [Silene noctiflora), with its petals, at this 

 time of day, rolled up and scentless. There was plenty of it 

 in several of the fields, so I was enabled to take a few roots, 

 which have lived and flowered in the garden. Even in the 

 vasculum on the way home, the petals expanded from their 

 rolled up condition of daylight, and gave out a very pleasant 

 scent, which, no doubt, attracts great numbers of night-flying 

 insects, moths, &c. 



H 



