Queries and Answers. 105 



to the endive and lettuce; also if all the aphis tribe produce honey dew j 

 and, if not, do the ants prey on the bodies of these insects ? I observed the 

 ants very busy attacking the aphis behind, and running from one to another. 

 — William Henri/ Hill. Newland^ Gloucestershire , Sept. 10. 1828. 



Tipula tritici. — From the destructive effects of this fly in 1827 the wheat 

 crop in East Lothian was ahnost entirely annihilated. This season, though 

 its ravages have been less severe in that quarter, yet it has more generally 

 infested the wheat crop throughout the whole of Scotland. You have given 

 a very accurate figure of it in your Magazine of Natural History, Vol. I, 

 p. 227. ; ;but it would be exceedingly interesting to many of your readers if 

 you or any of your correspondents would, in a future Number^ give some 

 particulars of the natural history of this destructive insect, and mention if 

 any method has been tried, or can be adopted, to subdue it. — J. Ferme, 

 Haddington^ Dec. 1828. 



Procelluria Ledch'n. — Some correspondent would, perhaps, favour you 

 with an account of the Procellaria Leach«. At present but three of the 

 genus are British, viz. the Procellaria glacialis, or Fulmar; the Procellaria 

 pelagica, or Stormy Petrel, commonly known to sailors as Mother Carey's 

 Chickens ; and Procellaria Puffinusy or Shearwater. — Id. 



Putting Bees into Mourning — Sir, In your Magazine of Natural His- 

 tory (Vol. 1. p. 93.), Mr. D. Stock wishes to know if the custom of putting 

 bees into mourning is practised in other parts of England. Happening to 

 mention the circumstance to a person who has been used to bees all his 

 lifetime, and who is a native of Kent, I was informed that it is the custom 

 in some parts of that county, to tap at each hive, upon the death of any 

 member of the family where bees are kept, otherwise the bees all die, or do 

 not thrive with the family afterwards. — Andrew Mathews. Alfred House, 

 Turnham Green, Sept. 18. 1828. 



LathrcB^a squamai'ia. — Sir, I beg to offer to your correspondent Mr. 

 Smith, of Sandgate (Vol. I. p. 407.), the best description I can supply, from 

 recollection, of the Lathrae'a squamaria found in this neighbourhood : — 



Flowering branches frequently more than double the size stated in the 

 English Flora, rising 10, 12, or even 14 in. above the surface, bearing from 

 thirty to forty flowers, disposed in three distinct yet perfectly unilateral 

 rows ; smooth, shining, tinged with bluish purple, and having a few flower- 

 less bracteae below, but gradually becoming hairy upwards ; thickest about 

 the middle.. BractecB (called leaves in Eng. Flor.) broader than their 

 length, sitting, smooth, shining, and rather fleshy ; one at the base of each 

 petiole, and certainly of a different structure from the true subterranean 

 leaves. Petioles and calyx hairy ; though these and the stem are repre- 

 sented smooth in t. 50. of Eng. Bot. In the English Flora, the calyx is 

 described as having the hue and texture of the leaves (qu. bracteae ?) ; 

 whereas, it is soft and thin, not at all succulent. Flowers of a dullish pink 

 purple ; the segments of the upper lip of the corolla much longer than the 

 calyx, collapsed together, enveloping the stamens and the greater part of 

 the style, though the stigma projects beyond them. Capsules succulent. 



I have confined myself to those points in which I think our plant differs 

 from the description in Eng. Flo., and from the figure in Eng. Bot., not hav- 

 ing Hudson's Flor. Aug. to refer to. Though, at this period of the year, I am 

 obliged to trust to memory, I flatter myself I shall be found correct ; for, 

 being dissatisfied with Sowerby's figure, I made a drawing from nature, in 

 April last, which has fixed its image on my mind ; but having since given it 

 to a scientific friend, I am still without reference. I may add, that a com- 

 parison of the figure in Eng. Bot., and of t. 1 60. of Curtis's British Ento- 

 mology, the plates of which, for fidelity of outline and richness of colouring, 

 are beyond all praise, strongly supports your correspondent's doubts. 



It is somewhat singular that, though the Lathras'a has been long suspected 

 to be parasitical, no botanist has yet told us how it is attached to the roots 



