NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 3OI 



fed up very rapid!}/, and has now formed a slight cocoon in the 

 earth, but Mr. Hope fears that it has been " stung " by ichneu- 

 mons. In all probality we snail hear of more captures of this 

 rare sphinx this summer. — Ed. 



ECHINODER MA 7 A . 

 Henricia sanguinolenta in the Colne River. — On 



May 2gth, Dr. Henry Laver wrote : — " On Thursday, the 26th, 

 our Fisliery Board inspected the Colne, dredging in various parts 

 of the river. Towards the mouth of the river the star-fish I 

 send came up in a dredge, and I saved it for you, as it was some- 

 thing fresh to me, and neither of the dredgermen on board 



recognised it Fortunately for our Fishery there are 



very few star-fishes in the Colne, and in all we did not draw up 

 more than five or six during the day. There was one having a 

 small oyster in his embrace ; I don't think he had killed it, 

 but it would have been only a question of a little time. 



The star-fish sent by Dr. Laver was Henricia sanguinolenta 

 O. F. '^IxxW^Cfihella oculata Forbes. As far as I know, this 

 is an addition to our, at present, slender list of Essex 

 Echinoderms. It is very different in appearance from the 

 common star-fish {Asterias ruhens) ; when taken from the water it is 

 stiff, and does not drop flaccidly when lifted up as the Asterias 

 does. In Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell's Catalogue of British Echinoderms, it 

 is given a very wide area, horizontally and vertically, both 

 sides of N. Atlantic, Arctic Ocean, and North Sea littoral to 

 1,350 fathoms. Bell records many Scottish localities and says 

 that the species occurs at Plymouth, Weymouth, and Worthing, 

 but gives no intermediate eastern localities. Dr. Laver has 

 kindly presented the specimen to our Museum. — W. Cole,. 

 Buckhurst Hill. 



BOTANY. 



Lathraea squarmaria, L. in Essex. — I had a piece of this 

 interesting parasitic plant, the " Toothwort," sent me to-day 

 from what appears to be the locality indicated in Gibson's Flora 

 of Essex — " in a meadow near Halstead, but very rare," where it 

 was recorded by Mr. Thomas Bentall (date ?). It is interesting 

 to know that this plant, so rare in Essex — I know of only one 

 other locality for it in the county, a locality kindly pointed out to- 

 me by Mr. E. E. Turner, of Coggeshall, in the same district — 



