CURRENT NOTES. 251 



Mr. L. W. Newman of Bexley, has written ua as follows: — "It has 

 come to my knowledge that reports are circulating that Mr. G. B. 

 Oliver is collecting on my account in Cornwall this season. I wish in 

 fairness to us both to contradict this, and to say that Mr. Oliver has 

 never spent a season anywhere collecting for me. He is an old friend, 

 and we have had many pleasant exchanges, and some years ago, when 

 I was very busy, he kindly came and helped me at Bexley for a few 

 weeks." 



We very much regret to hear from Mr. J. E. Collin that Mr. G. H. 

 Verrall, of Newmarket, is seriously ill. We sincerely trust that he 

 may speedily recover, to continue the study of the Diptera, on which 

 order he for many years past has been one of the foremost European 

 authorities. 



In our advertisement columns is announced the sale of a further 

 portion of the collection of our late Editor, to take place on Tuesday, 

 September 16th. The two cabinets, both in very good condition, 

 contain the remaining species of the Xoctuae not comprised in the 

 previous sale, together with the greater part of the Geumetridae. Most 

 of the series are long and extremely varied, and contain numerous 

 races and broods referred to in various articles in the Kntomolo(iist'» 

 Record by Dr. Riding and others ; for example, hybrid F^phyra 

 orhicidaria x E. pendtdario, varieties produced by experiments with 

 Z. annHlata {nmicrnnaria), a long series of the Tephmsia species 

 obtained in a similar manner, etc., etc. Anyone interested in the 

 potentiality of a species to produce local variation, will find abundant 

 instances in the long series which are to be dispersed. 



We understand that although the whole of the last number was 

 passed for press before July 11th, and the printers delivered the 

 magazine ready for issue on July 14th, by an unfortunate misunder- 

 standing, copies wer© not distributed to the subscribers until more 

 than a week after. Since the issue of the February number of the 

 present year, the printers have been invariably to time in their 

 delivery. 



On page 159 of the present volume of our magazine we wrote 

 a " Current Note" or two dealing with the publications issued by the 

 various departments in foreign countries, which deal with experimental 

 entomology from an agricultural point of view, and deplored the back- 

 wardness of the authorities in our own country to support work of 

 a similar nature. We are now pleased to be informed that an initial 

 step has at last been taken, that the Treasury have sanctioned the 

 allocation of funds to be distributed by the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries for the promotion of agricultural research and local investi- 

 gations in England and Wales. The total maximum yearly amount 

 to be expended will be about £50,000. A scheme has been formulated 

 in considerable detail, including not only researches into the systems 

 of agriculture, the influence of local conditions, and the investiga- 

 tion of economical facts and figures, etc., etc., but is to include original 

 experiments in plant physiology, pathology, etc., animal pathology, 

 agricultural zoology, the influence of animals and plants on the soil 

 and vice-versa, etc., etc. At the recent St. Albans' Congress of the 

 South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies we had the pleasure of 

 being conducted over the Rothamsted Laboratory and Experimental 

 Agricultural Station by Mr. A, D, Hall, M.A., F.R.S., the director of the 



