1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 231 



a mountain mass with a rich flora and a much more favourable 

 climate. Finally, a comparison between the Alpine and Arctic floras 

 shows that only 17 per cent, of the species of the former are found in 

 the latter, in strong contrast to the 25 per cent, which are common to 

 the Alps and the mountains of Northern Asia. The conclusion to 

 which Mr. Ball was therefore incHned, is that the Alpine flora owes 

 but little to a migration from the North. " What," he says, " should 

 we have to say of the remaining 83 per cent., including at least four 

 generic types peculiar to the Alps, and a very large number not found 

 in the Arctic regions ? " " Is it credible that in the short interval 

 since the close of the Glacial period, hundreds of very distinct species 

 and several genera have been developed in the Alps, and — what is no 

 less hard to conceive — that several of these non- Arctic species should 

 still more recently have been distributed, at wide intervals, throughout 

 a discontinuous mountain chain some 1,500 miles in length, from the 

 Pyrenees to the Eastern Carpathians ? " Many of these non-Arctic 

 types are, moreover, represented in the mountains of distant regions, 

 not by the same but by allied species, which must have had a 

 common ancestor. Wulfenia, for instance, has one species in the Alps, 

 another in Northern Syria, while a third allied species has its home 

 in the Himalaya. 



The origin of the flora of the European Alps remains an unsolved 

 problem ; but towards its solution Mr. Ball's table will, in the right 

 hands, afford considerable help. 



Clover Hay. 

 In commenting on our note of last July (p. 11), " A Danger of 

 Clover," a correspondent of Farm and Home, who signs himself 

 " Pateley Bridge," remarks : — " Trifolium hay is not a common article 

 in this country, but when it is made into hay, it is generally owing to 

 a larger area having been sown than is required for green meat, and 

 is usually allowed to stand until no longer fit for this purpose. This 

 makes it pretty old before it is cut for conversion into hay. I have 

 never met with a case of calculi, or, indeed, any worse intestinal 

 trouble than colic, resulting from the excessive consumption of old 

 trifolium in the shape of green meat, and I cannot understand how 

 any accumulation of the hairs can cause ' peritonitis,' as stated in the 

 report; but if the minute hairs which invest the glume of the oat, and 

 which are especially abundant in poor, thin samples, can, when felted 

 together and combined with a portion of earthy matter and inspissated 

 mucus, form large tuberculated concretions, it does not seem un- 

 reasonable that the hairs from the calyx of trifolium should be capable 

 of producing similar mischief." 



The Iceland Earthquake. 

 News of a severe earthquake which occurred in Iceland, on 

 August 26 and 27, has been brought by the steamers " Laura " 



