54 The Irish Naturalist. April, 



(Herb. Kcw). The station is S.I', of Smyrna, and the ]-)lant (luitc typical. 

 The most extreme plants are from Madeira and Kerry. The f. ovatum. 

 on the other hand, has a wider range, just as it has in Ireland — Germany 

 (Trier). ^ladcira, Sicily (Palermo), Corfu, Cyprus, south Syria, Phoenicia. 

 The occurrence of this form so far north as Trier is interesting. The 

 specimen was collected by C. Baenitz in 1868 (Herb. Brit. Mus.). Specimens 

 which are good acutum, somewhat intermediate between f. lineare and 

 f. ovatum, were noted as from Algiers and Hawaii ; and specimens from 

 Mentone approach acutum. 



Luerssen, in his full account of the species as found in Central Europe 

 (Rabenhorst's " Kryptogamen-Flora, ' vol. 3, pp. 260-282), recognizes the 

 two forms of acutum referred to above, while not separating them, and 

 sets down the linear form as rare. His figure (125 b) represents good 

 ovatum, to which no doubt, should be referred most if not all of the stations 

 which he mentions, situate in South Tirol, Hungar}^ Croatia, Dalmatia, 

 and Istria. 



I may add with reference to the figures of the two forms accompanying 

 my paper that, though they are drawn with accuracy, nevertheless the 

 impression given by a comparison between good specimens of the two 

 forms is of a greater amount of difference than is evident in the plate — 

 the ultimate segments of the one appearing more ovate, and the other 

 more linear, than in the figures. 



R. Lloyd Praeger. 

 Dublin. 



ZOOLOGY. 



A Wasps' Nest. 



At the beginning of last summer a lady who lives in the little hamlet of 

 Oueensboro', near the mouth of the Boyne, took down her winter curtains 

 and hangings and caused some of them to be stored away for the summer 

 in a large wooden box or chest. This chest was kept in an unused room ; 

 it had no lid, and a window in the room was always open. About the 

 middle of October she required the curtains and hangings, and sent a 

 servant for them. The servant returned and reported a bad smell from the 

 chest. The lady had it emptied, and found at the bottom of it, under about 

 two feet of tapestry and woollen curtains and hangings, a wasps' nest. 

 The wasps were dead, so she could examine it in safet5\ A few days later 

 I chanced to meet her. She told me her tale, and kindly gave me the 

 remains of the nest and about a dozen of the deceased wasps. I am not 

 an entomologist, but 1 know enough about wasps to perceive that the case 

 was somewhat out of the common, so I sent the nest and wasps to Dr. 

 Scharff. He was much interested and advised me to send an account of the 

 case to the Irish Naturalist. The nest was small, the largest comb being 

 about 4 inches in diameter, and it was made after the usual pattern of 

 wasps' nests, roughly globular, and the combs connected by pillars or 



