41 



Report of the Bookham Common Field Meeting, 

 May loth, 1902. 



By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. Read May 22nd, 1902. 



On May loth took place the first of the field meetings for the 

 season of 1902. Though but a few spots of rain fell during the 

 afternoon and evening, still the weather, cold and generally dull, 

 was altogether unfavourable. This being the case, it argues well for 

 the success of the large number of field meetings arranged that a 

 party of eighteen should have braved the elements on so unpromis- 

 ing a day. The commons between Effingham Station and Great 

 Bookham formed the hunting-ground for the occasion, and the track 

 to them lay along a broad green lane, which in better weather might 

 perhaps prove productive. Though situated on the London clay, 

 the ground was firm under foot, and in most cases sufficiently dry ; 

 the ponds, indeed, around which, after wandering in various direc- 

 tions, the party finally assembled, were by no means too well filled 

 with water. 



Though the weather was so bad, a few things were taken and 

 some observations were made. Mr. Step took note of a number of 

 birds — the coot, the peewit, Ray's wagtail, the nightingale, swallow, 

 swift, cuckoo, blackcap, hedge-sparrow, and blackbird, — while the 

 same observer and the writer paid some attention to the flowers that 

 were in blossom, and a fairly good list was the result. It included 

 the white water-buttercup {^Ranuncuhis ai/iiaiilis, form hetero- 

 phyllus) ; R. ficaria^ the lesser celandine or pilewort ; Cardamine 

 pratensis, the cuckoo-flower, or milkmaid, as it is called around 

 Kingston-on-Thames ; Viola cani/ia, the dog-violet ; Cerastium 

 glomeratutn, the mouse-ear chickweed ; Stellaria holostea, the stitch- 

 wort ; .S. pabistris ; S. uliginosa, a very small plant not quite in 

 flower, and not identified at the time ; Ilex aquifolhim, the holly ; 

 Ulex eiiropmis, the furze ; Genista anglica, petty-whin, the badge 

 of the Plantagenets ; Lathyrus macrorrhiztis ( = Orobus tuberostis) ; 

 Primus communis, the sloe ; Potentilla tormetitilla ; P. fragarias- 

 trum ; Crafcpgus oxyac'anf/ia, the may, which I had not previously 

 found in blossom; Bellis perennis, the daisy; Taraxacum officinale, 

 the dandelion ; Byronia dioica, the white bryony ; Primula vulgaris, 

 the primrose ; P. veris, the cowslip ; Veronica chamcedrys, the ger- 

 mander speedwell ; Ruscus aculeatus, the butcher's-broom (rather 

 plentifully), with its tiny lily-flowers on the flattened phylloclades, 

 which look like leaves ; Arum maculatum, lords and ladies, or 

 cuckoo-pint ; and Luzula campesiris, the wood-rush. So much for 



