REGIONAL MEETINGS - Natural History Museum

from New Zealand, brought by Jonathan Bryant, and some slide presentations. Pat showed
slides from the BPS ‘Feast in the East’ trip to New England, and ferns from the Alps on the
border between France and Italy. Paul Ripley showed a taster of the ferns of Réunion,
where a BPS meeting is scheduled for October 2006, and Howard Matthews presented
some particularly fine photographs taken on a recent visit to Iceland.
We are very grateful to many members who brought ferns and plants to give away, but
particularly to Grace and Pat Acock for organising such a successful day and for providing
us with wonderful and extremely generous hospitality.
EAST ANGLIA
Indoor Meeting, Lowestoft, Suffolk – 22 January Rosemary Stevenson
A large group of 23 members and friends met at midday in the home of Gill and Bryan
Smith and were soon enjoying one of Gill’s splendid lunches.
Our guest speaker was Martin Rickard, a past President of the BPS. He regaled us with a host
of interesting and amusing anecdotes about members he has known from the time he joined
the Society in 1967 up to the present day. His talk was illustrated with slides mainly taken
during fern meetings both in the UK and abroad. Martin paid particular tribute to Jimmy
Dyce, without whose drive and determination after World War II the BPS would have
folded. He expressed the delight we all felt at having Betty Dyce with us for this meeting.
With the help of Martin’s slides and his humorous commentary it was for many of us a chance
at last to put faces to the countless familiar BPS names from the 1960s and ’70s through to
more recent times, and to learn the parts they have played as the Society has evolved.
During our visit we were able to admire Gill and Bryan’s fern collection, both in the garden
and indoors, as well as the many ferny artefacts decorating the house. Martin had also
brought a collection of interesting fern-related items. His wonderful New Zealand fern
albums with their intricately inlaid native-wood covers – one by the famous Seuffert firm –
took pride of place, while a curiosity was a collection of Horticultural Medals won by
E.J. Lowe, the Victorian writer on ferns.
Our thanks go to Gill and Bryan Smith and Martin Rickard for giving us all such a
thoroughly enjoyable day.
Aldeburgh, Suffolk – 24 May Anne Beaufoy
Thirteen members met at The Exotic Garden Company’s outlet at Aldeburgh, but the range of
tree-ferns and palms there was less extensive than usual as another shipment was awaited.
We moved to the car park at the edge of the RSPB North Warren reserve (62/455587),
inland from Thorpeness Mere. A delightful walk across the heathland took us to a wooded
area with wetter carr. Adding a wider interest to the usual dry land flora were Corydalis
claviculata and Montia perfoliata. We were interested to note how the ubiquitous bracken’s
spring development had varied according to its site. In the sheltered woodland the fronds
were expanding well, whilst some on the less protected pathway had been frost-bitten. In the
most open and coldest heathland parts, the croziers were still judiciously only at ground level.
The main object of our search, Osmunda regalis, eluded us. Although it has not been seen
since the carr was flattened in the 1987 storm, it could well still survive, hidden, such is the
impenetrable jungle there now. A winter visit, with better visibility through the vegetation,
might be a better hunting time. However, we found some good specimens of Dryopteris
carthusiana, D. dilatata, D. filix-mas and Athyrium filix-femina. Equisetum fluviatile and
E. palustris were growing in a reed bed.
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