54 
obituary notices reference can be made to the sympathetic 
appreciation by Mr. J. Rams bottom in the Journal of Botany 
for January, and to the longer one by Prof. Tansley (with 
portrait) in the Journal of Ecology issued in February. Moss 
was an extremely hard and thorough worker, with an acute 
and logical mind. He was born in Cheshire on February 
7th, 1872. 
We are indebted to Mr. Little for kindly supplying and 
defraying the cost of the prints of the “ Skeg,” which first 
appeared in the Herts Express at his instigation. He has 
also written the following interesting account. 
H. S. THOMPSON, 
April 6, 1931. Hon. Sec. 
SKEG. 
The print was produced by Messrs. Carling & Co. of Hitchin, 
from a photograph taken by Mary D. Thrussell (aged 14), 
of Pirton, Herts. It represents one of the forms of Wild Plum 
known at Pirton by the name of Skeg, which covers minor 
botanical differences of spinosity, size and form of leaf, 
pubescence, shape and quality of fruit. Mr. J. E. Thrussell 
makes the following distinctions between two forms both 
locally called Skeg. “ 1. Black Bullace. This is much like 
a Damson. It has spines, and the fruit is quite palatable. It 
occurs mostly if not altogether in old hedges, i.e., those 
planted before the local Enclosure Act (1811). 2. Wild Plum. 
Has no spines, and the larger fruits are quite sharp when 
ripe.” Cf. Ref. 847 infra, which is however spiny. 
Mrs. J. W. Ludclington (in litt. 14 Feb., 1931), writes : — 
“ Skeg — I think I remember hearing an old friend of my 
father’s say that one year he paid his rent entirely from the 
yield of those growing in his hedges. This was in Kent.” 
Mr. Geo. Goode kindly looked the word up in the English 
Dialect Dictionary (1904), according to which it is reported 
in use in the counties of Kent, Northampton, Warwick and 
Oxford. 
Dr. A. B. Rendle points out another dialectal word, for the 
fruit of the Bullace, viz., Cricksey, (Britten and Holland, 
Diet, of Eng. Plant Names, 1886, ‘ current in Cambs., N. 
Essex, and Norfolk ’). This according to W. W. Skeat, in 
