252 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Mite-Galls on the Beech (Fagus sylvatica) in Scotland. In 



August I found in Rothiemurchus several forms of growth on the 

 leaves of beech trees, which were due to the action of microscopic 

 mites of the group Eriophyidce, formerly known as Phytoptida. 

 The most frequent was the form once regarded as a fungus, under 

 the name of Erineum fagineum^ Persoon, consisting of patches on the 

 lower surface of the leaves covered with short clubbed hairs. I have 

 seen these patches in various parts of Scotland, from Dumfries north- 

 wards, but always of a pale colour, or at most becoming pale rusty 

 brown. The red variety, described from the Continent of Europe, 

 has not been seen by me in Scotland. 



On a few trees in Rothiemurchus, and on one by the Findhorn 

 near Relugas, I met with leaves bearing similar pale hairs on the 

 upper surface in narrow belts along the chief veins, the so-called 

 Erineum nervisequum, Kunze. These sometimes occurred on the 

 same leaves as E. fagineum, but usually there appeared to be 

 little connection between them. They are both attributed to 

 Eriophyes nervisequus, Can. 



On a few other trees the leaves were still more markedly altered, 

 being thickened in texture, permanently folded along the veins, and 

 covered with hairs, which early become pale brown. The leaves 

 remain small and useless to the plant. Usually the two or three 

 terminal leaves of a shoot are entirely altered, while the lower ones 

 show no sign of injury. One or two trees showed many branches 

 affected, while others had few attacked. I have seen this gall only 

 rarely before in Aberdeenshire and Perthshire, and at Kew, near 

 London. All the examples that I have found have been dry and 

 vacated by the makers. It has been attributed to Eriophyes stenaspis, 

 Nalepa ; but the gall characteristic of this mite is a rolling of the leaf- 

 margins into narrow tubes more or less filled with hairs, known as 

 Leg-no n drcumscriptum, Bremi. This latter gall I have found in 

 Dumfries and elsewhere in Scotland, but not frequently, and never 

 associated with the plicate leaves. I looked without success for the 

 rolled leaf-margins on the trees that bore the other form ; and I did 

 not see them in the valley of the Spey this autumn. 



As the Beech is itself a comparatively recent introduction into 

 Scotland from the continent of Europe, its galls must have been 

 introduced with young trees. JAMES W. H. TRAIL. 



Galled Flowers of Field Gentian (Gentiana campestris, L.). I 

 had occasionally observed in former years distorted and swollen 

 flowers on the Gentian in the valley of the Dee, e.g. in Braemar and 

 near Dinnet, but had not had the fitting opportunity to examine 

 these closely, hence I was glad to use the opportunity to do so pre- 

 sented by finding such flowers rather plentifully in August in various 

 places in Rothiemurchus, in Abernethy, Cromdale, and elsewhere near 

 the Spey. The plants showed a tendency to be badly affected in 



