KOTES SFPPLEMEXTAL TO THE FLOHA OF HRISTOL S7 



and Mr. James Groves has led to Miss Roper's plant being described 

 as a distinct variety — var. grnciUiina : see Journ. Hot. 1917, 323. 



N. intricata Braun. (Leoidi.). New to the Bristol flora. Dis- 

 covered, May 1917, by Mrs. Sandwith in a small muddy pool (a 

 strontia pit) N. of Yate Clmrch, G. ! 



Ghamfraf/iUs Desv. A flrst record for the typical plant in the 

 West Glouc. division of the district. In a pond (once more a strontia 

 pit) on the skirt of Yate Lower Common, June 1917 ! These ponds 

 or pits in the vicinity of Yate — there are several hundreds of them — 

 from which so man}^ good aquatics have been taken, are small excava- 

 tions in the grits and sandstones of the locality, made in extracting 

 the strontium ore that occurs in pockets near the surface, a process 

 still going on. Although often only a few feet in area, they are 

 seldom tilled up when done with ; water collects at once on the 

 impervious rock and vegetation quickly follows. As the ponds are 

 artificial the plants must be introductions, so here again we see the 

 work of wild-fowl, and interesting work remains for us in a search 

 for the original habitats or headquarters from whence the aquatics 

 have been brought. Such sources may lie at a considerable distance, 

 perhaps far beyond our limits. 



Alieis'S. Our unsavoury heaps of city refuse with the neigh- 

 bouring grain-sifting plots and fowl-runs continue to yield varied 

 crops of foreign weeds. In general I have put on record such casuals 

 as have occurred with some regularity on the same ground, or in 

 more than one locality in the district. Others, seen once only, as a 

 rule have been ignored. These immigrants, it may be noted, have 

 an especial charm for some botanists, and their collection has been 

 lately stimulated by the news that a descriptive Alien Flora of 

 Great Britain is in prejmration. A bevy of helpers in the work, from 

 far and near, has visited the Corporation tips of St. Philip's and 

 St. Anne's, in particular ; and a lengthy list of their observations 

 has been inserted by Mr. G. C. Druce in his Eep. Hot. Soc. <^ B. E. 

 C. B. Isles for the last two years. Truly we have travelled a long 

 way since Hewett Watson penned his caustic comment {Comp. Cyb. 

 Brit. 466) on the topographical value of a tomato on a dunghill ! 



SIR GEORGE BIRD WOOD AND "PRIMROSE DAY." 



By the death of Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood at 

 liis residence at Ealing, on the 28th of June last, The Times — which 

 on the day following had an interesting memoir of him — has been 

 deprived of a correspondent who has occupied that position for about 

 forty years, and who during that time placed at the disposal of that 

 paper and its readers his vast store of information. " Among Anglo- 

 indians," says The Times, " Sir George Birlwood had long occupied a 

 unique place, even apart from his position as an authority on all 

 matters jiertaining to Indian art, m^^thology, literature, and history, 

 on account of his intcn.se sympathy with the people of India and 

 •A personal inlluence over them. Both at Boml)ay and at the India 

 Office he originated many developiiients in the economic resources of 



