43 



SPARTINA REPOET, 1919. 



By R. Vowell Sherring, F. L. S. 



There has been a steady and general growth during the year. 

 Anyone standing on Constitution Hill cannot but note the change 

 in the last few years ; there is less water and more grass. The 

 first insular patch seen to the left of the Fever Hospital, which 

 started in a few small clumps, has increased so rapidly as to 

 approach meadowing. Beyond that there is a long band facing 

 Brownsea Island and extending west of the island to where it is 

 broken by Wych Channel, thence it continues in the direction of 

 Shipstal Point and off Arne there is a great thickening. There 

 has also been an extension and a considerable thickening of the 

 patches and shore band at Whitley Lake. The clumps show a 

 larger size and one extends to near Sandbanks Post Office. Brands 

 Bay shows steady growth and from Goathorn past Ower to Arne 

 shore there is marked progress. At Arne a new feature showed 

 itself. The shores were covered with clumps and scattered 

 Spartina mixed with the usual Zostera. It is evident this was 

 caused by some meadow being carried away or the grass approach- 

 ing a deep current. Professor Oliver and myself take this to be 

 a purely local phase. During the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion 40 members accepted an invitation from Professor F. W. 

 Oliver and myself to see the grass in its best form and extent at 

 Fitzworth Point, the Pisgah of Poole Harbour, and were con- 

 veyed by Mr. Brown via Shipstal Point, Long Island and Round 

 Island. From the high ground the vast extent of the grass and 

 the rapid closing of the channel between Round Island and the 

 shore were pointed out. The Professor then proceeded to Nath 

 Point showing where the Spartina was killing the Scirpus mariti- 

 mus. The party returned by the Wych Channel to Poole and saw 

 the passage between Long and Round Islands now closed by the 

 grass, which makes the circuit of these islands. 



N.B. — A sketch-map of Poole Harbour, in which the places mentioned in this 

 report are marked, will be found iD Volume VII. of the "Proceedings." 



(Entomological anb Zoological <§ations. 



NOTE BY CHAIRMAN. 



There was a General Lecture on December 3, 1918, by Mr. F. 

 W. Edwards, B.A., on " Mosquitoes and Malaria in Lngland." 



Mr. Edwards, who is an Assistant in the Department of Ento- 

 mology of the Natural History Museum, has made a special study 

 of our English Gnats, often spoken of under their synonym of 

 Mosquitoes. 



It may be remembered that the Entomological Section of our 

 Society was asked by the Mosquito Investigation Committee of the 



