120 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



thing ; its resemblance to true R. petiolaris is purely super- 

 ficial. Only the other day a small and slender Flammula 

 form which I have noticed in West Sutherland and elsewhere 

 was sent to me as R. petiolaris, which it does not at all 

 closely approach, by an accomplished Scottish botanist. 



I think that " var. radicans " is better entitled to bear 

 the name of pseudo-reptans than what Mr. Ewing describes 

 under ($), judging both from Syme's description and from 

 the mimicking of R. rcptans by the former. The suggestion 

 that " var. radicans " is a hybrid scarcely calls for serious ex- 

 amination. 



R. reptans I have never had an opportunity of seeing 

 alive in Britain ; but I found it some years ago by a 

 mountain lake in the Upper Valais, Switzerland, growing on 

 mud, in the greatest profusion, at 6500 feet above sea-level, 

 since which time I have never felt much real doubt about 

 its specific distinctness. Mr. E\ving's experience of its 

 brittle nature exactly agrees with my own. There was no 

 " shading-off " towards R. Flammula that I could detect 

 (and I made a long and careful search in order to arrive at 

 a definite conclusion, if possible). In the solitary fruit on 

 my Loch Leven specimen, collected by Boswell Syme, the 

 beak is almost exactly as represented in " E. B.," ed. iii. t. 

 xxx, though rather more slender, and crowned with the per- 

 sistent stigma. I should hardly have called it " short," 

 but shrinkage in drying probably makes some difference. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Pine Marten in Aberdeenshire. A full-grown specimen of 

 the rare Pine Marten (Mustela martes) was caught here in a vermin 

 trap on the igth November last. It was very ferocious and 

 dangerous to approach, and showed much fight to the last. It was 

 in full winter pelage, and of the cream or pale yellow-throated 

 variety. The limbs were short and remarkably strong, the body 

 lean and thin. The extreme length was 32! inches, and the breadth 

 between the tips of the ears 5 inches. It was handed over to me 

 by the keeper who caught it, and it now forms part of my collection. 

 GEORE SIM, Gourdas, Fyvie. 



[We examined a fine female which had also been obtained near 

 Fyvie during the second week of November last. EDS.] 



