SHOKT NOTES AND QUERIES. 245 



were unexpanded, and of a solid, globular form ; and we, at first, supposed 

 they were buds that would eventually open out into double flowers, such 

 as are not uufrequently met with in Cardamine pratensis. On examination, 

 however, this abnormal development was found to be due to the attack of 

 minute insects, small yellow grubs, very similar to the larvfe of the Wheat 

 Midge {Cecidomya Tritici), that are so often found amongst the chafF scales 

 of wheat. Each flower contained a dozen or more of the parasites. The 

 flowers themselves had become strangely altered. The sepals were thickened 

 and otherwise somewhat enlarged, green and persistent ; the petals pei-- 

 sistent, unaltered iu texture but purple in colour ; the filaments mur-h 

 swollen, but the anthers quite unaltered ; and tlie pistil considerably 

 enlarged. The peculiar thickening of the pai'ts of the flower was, no 

 doubt, due to the puncture of the parent insect when she deposited her 

 eggs, as is the case in- all kinds of galls, rather than to the efl'ect of the 

 larvae feeding on the juices of the flower. In fact, the flower was partially 

 converted into a gall, — a nidus for the young brood of insects ; but it is 

 sti-ange that an injury of this kind should have caused such a very marked 

 change in the colour of the petals. — Robert Holland. 



Stellakia umbrosa, " Oj)itz." — I found this well-marked and striking 

 form of Stdlaria media in June last, growing abundantly in and near 

 Morley Wood, near Mobberley, Cheshire, as well as in one or two other 

 places in the neighbourhood. It is stated in Eng. Bot. ed. 3. ii. 95, to 

 be of rare occurrence, and to be " most probably a sub-species," in which 

 opinion I concur. Besides the characters there given, the size of the 

 flowers — about midway between those of typical S. media and S. nemorum 

 — would at once attract the attention even of a casual observer. — James 

 Britten. 



Dracocephalum tiiymiflorum, L. — T am not aware that this plant 

 has been previously recorded as an introduction ; but have lately received 

 a specimen gathered in a clover-field near High Wycombe, Bucks. I am 

 informed that there were several large plants of it in this locality ; and 

 from the same field I have since YCceyvitAFarsetia iticana and i\\\ Authemis, 

 probably A. tinctoria, but the specimens were too young for positive 

 determination. The Dracocephalum. is a north and east European species. 

 — James Britten. 



Economical Use of Scirpus lacustris and of S. maritimus. 

 — It may be worth notice that the soft culms of S. lacustris are largely 

 used in the manufacture of casks for the purpose of caulking the spaces 

 between the staves and between the boards of the heads of the barrels. 

 Another Scirpus, S. maritiiims, may be mentioned as supplying from the 

 tubers of its rhizome a part of the food during winter of the grev-leg 

 wild goose, Anser ferus. My frieiul Mr. Basil Brooke found in the crops 

 of some of these wild geese, which he shot during the past season near 

 the Murragh of Wicklow, a quantity of the tubers of the Scirpus, which 

 abounds in this locality. Withering tells us that the roots of S. maritimus 

 dried and ground to powder have been used instead of flour in times of 

 scarcity. — A. G. More. 



