MISCELLANEOirS NOTES AND OBSEETATIONS. 239 



surface, which at a certain depth, say 1 8 or 20 feet, fails to yield 

 a profit to the digger. In Cambridgeshire, where the depth of the 

 seam is inconsiderable, one hears of very large sums having been 

 realised. In my own case the depth is so uncertain, and the 

 nuisance of the coprolite diggers, an especially rough lot, so great, 

 that I not long since declined an offer made for turning over some 

 10 acres during three years. 



I am afraid that this hasty letter will not afford the Society 

 either the amount or quality of information it deserves. At the 

 time I occupied my farm at Hinxworth I felt probably more 

 interest in carrying out the several agricultural operations, and, 

 I trust, improvements, in which I was engaged, than in collecting 

 materials which might assist the members of a Natural History 

 Society in dealing with matters of a scientific nature. — Robert 

 Clutterhuck, London. 



EOTANY. 



Fertilisation of Aucnha Japonica. — ' The Times ' of Feb. 22nd 

 gave some extracts from an interesting lecture, delivered by Sir 

 John Lubbock, M.P., at the Society of Arts, on " The Relations 

 of Plants and Insects." Amongst other facts Sir John mentions 

 the fertilisation of plants by insects, and produces several examples 

 showing how plants are fertilised by winged insects. I have a 

 remarkable instance of this in my garden at the present time. 

 For many years I have had plants of the Aucuha Japonica in my 

 garden, some of which are 8 feet high, but, not having a male 

 plant among them, they never fruited. A friend gave me a male 

 plant in the autumn of 1875, and last spring (1876) it flowered; 

 the result being that all the fertile plants standing near are at the 

 present time full of berries. This, however, would not surprise me 

 so much as the fact that the plants in other parts of the garden, 

 and separated by the house, are bearing a small quantity of fruit. 

 This must have been occasioned by the agency of winged insects, 

 the Aucuha being dioecious. I think it singular that the Aucuha 

 should have been so long in the country (Loudon states since 1783) 

 without the introduction of the male plant, which is not nearly so 

 handsome, and wants the attractive blotch on the leaf — a sexual 

 difference, I think, uncommon in vegetation. It is noticeable too, 

 that the Aucuha requires 12 months to ripen its fruit, which I 

 consider unusual in berry-fruiting plants. — Rev. R. H. TFehh, 

 Essendon Rectory, Hatfield. 



Entomologt. 



Appearance of Colias Edusa. — The clouded yellow ( Colias 

 Edusa), a butterfly occasionally abundant both in the extreme 

 south-east and extreme south-west of England, but never common 

 in any other parts of the country, has been seen round this neigh- 

 bourhood during the last few days in unusual numbers. It is 

 occasionally taken both in Middlesex and Hertfordshire as a 

 straggler, but only singly. Last Saturday my son saw one, a 

 female, at Chalk Farm ; on Sunday Mr. Fry saw one at Bushey, 



