BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS 187 



a rockery at home twenty-three years ago. It was in every way typical 

 alpina last year. I have had at Uddingston alpina and vulgaris 

 growing side by side, and often intermixed with each other, for eight 

 years, in the hope of getting conjuncta by self cross-fertilisation. I 

 get many vulgaris seedlings, but no alpina seedlings, and nothing 

 approaching conjuncta. 



Although this shows very clearly what decision I ought to come 

 to in the matter, I hear so often of this plant changing under 

 cultivation, that I am not perfectly sure if it does not under certain 

 conditions. I have a specimen of conjuncta in my herbarium that 

 was taken from Ben Lawers by Provost Smith of Kinghorn, many 

 years ago, as a souvenir of his first trip to that mountain. Now if 

 he took alpina, and no other person substituted conjuncta for it, 

 alpina in this case must have changed into conjuncta ; but as 

 conjuncta is such a common garden hardy herbaceous plant, it is 

 just possible that in this case also the change is very much due to 

 the gardener. 



I will believe in the change when I see some of my own plants 

 changing. P. EWING. 



Orchids and Rooks. There is a piece of undulating moor about 

 three miles from Aberdeen, dear to the botanists of that city, under the 

 name of Scotston Moor. On this some years ago various species of 

 Orchids abounded, including Orchis maculata, O. latifolia, Habenaria 

 Conopsea, and Habenaria bifolia, all plentiful. For a number of years 

 the Orchids showed no sign of diminishing ; nor did they appear to 

 suffer from the attacks of any animal. But during a severe winter 

 eight or ten years since the rooks, much straitened for food, turned 

 to the Orchids and dug out and ate the tubers. On several days 

 during that winter, and in the succeeding spring, I observed the 

 rooks in large numbers scattered over the surface of the moor, hard 

 at work, and I was able to convince myself of the object of their 

 search. The ground was full of holes made by them. Next summer 

 the Orchids named above had almost disappeared from their old 

 haunts, showing the damage done to them by the birds. The raid 

 has not been repeated, probably owing to the tubers being too few to 

 offer much inducement to seek them out ; and the Orchids are 

 slowly regaining ground ; but it will apparently be some time before 

 the damage is wholly repaired. JAMES W. H. TRAIL. 



Sundews and Butterflies. On the same moorland I was once 

 witness to a somewhat striking reversal of the usual law that animals 

 feed on plants. On a swamp not exceeding ten yards across, on 

 which Drosera anglica was growing rather freely, one summer day I 

 noticed upwards of a dozen of the Small Heath Butterfly (Ccenonympha 

 Pamphilus) on the leaves. Some were dead; others were still struggling 

 violently. All were caught by the head, thorax, and legs, and seemed 

 quite powerless to free themselves. I have only once or twice seen 



