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ESSEX FIELD CLUB : REPORTS OF MEETINGS. 
BOTANICAL RAMBLE IN THE EPPING AND COOPERSALE 
DISTRICT. (487th MEETING). 
SATURDAY, IITII MAY IQl8.. 
A bright sunny day, following a period of cold dull weather, tempted 
some 30 members and friends out into the pleasant Essex country, now clad 
in its fresh greenery of Spring. Ostensibly a botanical ramble, undertaken 
(in the words of the circular calling the meeting) “for the purpose of studying 
the Spring Flora of this beautiful District “whan co men is the May,’" 
the expedition resolved itself into a general nature-study ramble in the true 
Gilbert White spirit, the birds, now in their full song, the flowers,the mosses,, 
the mycetozoa, and the insects, all claiming their votaries. 
The party assembled at Epping station at it. 8 o’clock and at once,, 
under the guidance ol the Acting Hon. Secretary, struck eastwards through 
the fields, and along a delightful, though muddy, bridle-path, until the 
“ Theydon Oak ” at Coopersale Street was reached, crossing a tract 
cf country confessedly new to most of the company. The Lesser Peri¬ 
winkle ( Vinca minor) in flower, was growing at Steward’s Green; and 
many flowers of Hawthorn, almost all proving to be the variety cu-oxy- 
acantha , -with two styles, were examined critically for varietal determina¬ 
tion. , 
Ascending the winding road by Coopersade House and Church, past 
roadside cottages with trim gardens, Coopersale Common was reached 
soon after i o’clock, and lunch was voted imperative : this al fresco meal 
being partaken of to the charming accompaniment of the songs of two 
nightingales in the near bushes—“ smale fowles maden melodye.” In 
the afternoon, the ramble was continued into Birching Coppice, where 
large patches of Lily of the Valley ( Convallavia majalis ), just coming 
into flower-bud, delighted the eyes of the botanists, and the ornithologists 
were gratified by the abundant singing of the Wood Wren and other 
songsters. 
Two species of mycetozoa, Relicularia lycoperdon and Lycogala cpulen- 
drum, the latter in both the coral-pink plasmodium stage and with mature 
aethalia, were met with, while the antheridia of Polytrichum formosum 
claimed the attention of other members of the party. A nest of the 
black ant was “ bagged ” as a great prize, and the protective resemblance 
of the common grasshopper, Teitix bipunctatus, to the dry leaf frag¬ 
ments and bare turfy soil which it frequents, was commented upon, 
and specimens secured for the Club’s museum. Burrows ol the Tiger 
Beetle larva were noticed in the sandy soil, and the pools on Cooper¬ 
sale Common yielded the Bladderwort (Ulriculana vulgaris), the moss 
Hypnum aduncum , and other treasures, including various aquatic insects, 
such as the voracious larva of Dyliscus, the Water-scorpion ( Ncpa ), Whirli¬ 
gig beetles (Gyrinus ), and others. 
On the way back to Epping town, the not-common caryophyll, Masn- 
ckia erect a, was seen growing in the grass of Epping Plain. 
Tea was taken at the Thatched House Hotel at Epping. After tea, 
