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HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



Birds of Lancashire. — Mr. F. S. Mitchell, 

 Clitheroe, has issued a circular to ornithologists, 

 requesting to be supplied with the following infor- 

 mation. State boundaries of district in Lancashire 

 referred to. Note whether each species of bird is 

 permanent resident, summer visitor, winter visitor, 

 occasional visitor (summer or winter). Occurrences 

 of accidental visitors, with date, locality, authority, 

 and fullest possible particulars. Which species are 

 found breeding, specifying breeding localities, not 

 necessarily for publication. On the tendency of each 

 species to increase or decrease, with reasons for same. 

 Dates of arrivals and departures of migrants. 

 Whether migration is partial or absolute. Informa- 

 tion as to other parts of the county not included 

 in the particular district. Local names and deriva- 

 tions. 



BOTANY. 



Leucobryum glaucum. — Var. minus. Will 

 the bryological readers kindly note, that in the brief 

 account of this moss in Science-Gossip for Sep- 

 tember, the last line but one on page 210 should 

 read " //w//r^ quantities," and not ////limited. — y. 

 Saunders. 



White Heather. — White heather {Calhmavid- 

 garis), and white heath {Erica ciiierca), are by no 

 means uncommon on the mountains in counties An- 

 trim, Armagh, and Down, with which I am familiar. 

 I have never rambled across them in autumn 

 without finding numerous specimens of both plants. 

 Last month I was with some friends on a high hill 

 called Bree, between Wexford and Enniscorthy, 

 from which a magnificent panorama of the whole 

 county is obtained, and on which the common heather 

 and ling were in such glorious purple spikes as I 

 never saw elsewhere or dreamed of. One of the 

 ladies of our party got several specimens of white 

 Calluna v. and Erica c. which she considered ' ' very 

 lucky ! "— //. ]V. Lett, M.A. 



White Lamium purpureum. — In your last 

 number a correspondent mentioned the occurrence 

 of a white Laiitiuiii purpiireiiiii (red dead-nettle). I 

 think this form is rather rare. One was found near 

 York, but before that I had never heard of such a 

 specimen being found. I have never seen any mention 

 of it in any botanical book. I have been noticing 

 variations lately, and the following are one or two of 

 them. In June, while at Harrogate, I found several 

 specimens of Ramtnciiliis acris with ten petals, 

 growing in a hedge opposite the Bath Hospital. In 

 May, I found at some ponds near here,' a double- 

 flowered specimen of Cardamine prateiisis (Cuckoo 

 flower). In April, among some specimens of 

 'Jlelleboriis viridis (green hellebore) I had given, was 



one with six sepals instead of the usual five. About 

 Easter, I found on a moor a variety of Lainiiim 

 purpureum with the leaves more deeply cut than the 

 common form. — Alfred Waller, York. 



Notes on the Arbutus. — Is your correspondent 

 Mr. John Rasor, who in the April number of 

 Science-Gossip writes on this subject, certain that 

 the arbutus berries considered by the Irish to possess 

 medicinal powers, are not thos6 of the bearberry 

 {Arbutus Uva-iirsi) which is a very astringent shrub, 

 and was at one time employed by physicians in their 

 prescriptions, as a remedy for various diseases, — in 

 pulmonary consumption, for instance ? I know the 

 true arbutus well, have often eaten its strawberry- 

 like berries, and know, though it does not grow wild 

 in Wales, of two old country seats, in whose grounds 

 these trees are not far short of the size of those 

 described.by Mr. Rasor, as seen by him at Dinish. I 

 will write and get the exact size of one tree at 

 "Killymamllwyd," in South Wales, provided the tree 

 still stands. It was as tall as the old house when I 

 was a girl, and if it is now living, must, I should say, 

 be sixty feet \\\^.— Helen E. Watney. 



GEOLOGY. 



Sun- Spots and Earthquakes.— Mr. A. H. 

 Swinton, author of " Insect Variety," is preparing 

 for publication a table of sun-spots and earthquake 

 phenomena, by means of which many public calami- 

 ties may be safely predicted. Any public institution 

 or private individual desirous to assist in the publica- 

 tion of these observations, extending over the 

 Christian era, will kindly intimate the amount of 

 their subscription, for which copies will be sent. 

 The money will be returned unless the expense of 

 publication is fully covered. — Address Bin field House, 

 IVaterden Road, Guildford. 



The Bure Valley Beds and the Westleton 

 Beds. — A paper on this subject was read at the 

 British Association by Horace B. Woodward, F.G.S. 

 After referring to two papers read before the British 

 Association at York in 1881 by Professor Prestwich, 

 the author stated his reasons for concluding that the 

 pebble-gravels of the Bure Valley with Tellina 

 Balthica (the Bure Valley Beds proper), were dis- 

 tinct from the shingle at Westleton (the Westleton. 

 Beds proper). In company with Mr. J. H. Blake he 

 had (in 1 8 76) traced the latter beds from Westleton 

 to Dunwich Cliff, where they occurred in the upper 

 part of the so-called "Middle Glacial" beds of 

 Messrs. Wood and Harmer. These Westleton Beds, 

 consisting largely of flint-shingle, have been traced 

 from Westleton and Southwold to Halesworth and 

 Haddiscoe. In the neighbourhood of Haddiscoe and 

 Loddon, the author had found evidence to show that 



