98 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



SHORT NOTES. 



Digitalis purpurea Linn, in" East Leicestershire. — Whilst 

 engaged in botanical survey work a few weeks ago, Father Eeader 

 and I made the initial discovery of this plant in East Leicestershire 

 on a commanding eminence, a landmark well-known to all hunt- 

 ing men in this shire as Carlton Curlieu, near Kilworth. It is, 

 moreover, an enclosed covert which contains several fox "earths," 

 and is capped by sandy gravel or chalky boulder clay. The 

 plants, of which several w^ere seen, were growing in the centre of a 

 big grass pasture district, where there is little chance of their 

 having been introduced in the usual way. Though it is possible 

 the seeds may have been conveyed to this isolated station by birds 

 from the nearest locality west of the Soar, Groby (ten miles away), 

 I think it is more than probable that they have been carried by 

 foxes, the seeds having been pressed into the "pads" with soft 

 earth, and probably subsequently loosened in the coppice by the 

 fox in clearing its feet after a long " run " or possibly a midnight 

 adventure in search of poultry. Darwin [Origin of Species) has 

 referred to the transport of seeds by duck, adhering to mud, &c. 

 A. Walhs Kew {Dispersal of Shells) speaks of cases in which 

 shells have been transported by mammals, suggesting their trans- 

 portal by others (p. 50), and {ibid. p. 155) instances the case of a 

 rat clearing off an armful of snails from a hollyhock. Miss 

 Warre suggested to him the transportal of small shells by means 

 of cattle, to whose hoofs they might stick with the mud. 

 Clement Eeid {Origin of the British Flora) also alludes to the 

 ways in which mammals may transport seeds, either when eaten 

 or clinging to the fur, or carried on the legs of animals, adhering 

 to their flanks or heads, or by the faUing of the animal over a cliff 

 and subsequent drifting of its dead body. Other writers have 

 referred to the possibility of dispersal by these and other means, 

 so that it is not new, but the specific case of a fox carrying seeds 

 in its pads has not, I believe, been alluded to so far, and the 

 probability here seems irresistible. For the interest in the occur- 

 rence of so generally common a plant lies in the fact that hitherto 

 it had not been met with or but rarely in v.-c. 55, "east of the 

 Soar Valley, though common on the west side of the county 

 (vide Flora of Leicestershire). We have not ourselves seen it 

 before in East Leicestershire. — A. B. Horwood. 



Worcestershire Plants. — The following' plants have not 

 been recorded for the Malvern district of Worcestershire, and 

 those marked with an asterisk are also new to the county: — 

 ''''Hypericum humifiisum Linn. var. magnum Bast. This appears 

 to be the usual plant in the neighbourhood of the Malvern Hills. — 

 Malva moschata Linn. var. heterophylla Lej. Malvern Wells. — 

 ■•'Medicago lupulina Linn. var. scabra Gray. More frequent than 

 the glandular var. Willdenoiuii Koch, and very much more 

 abundant than the type. Malvern and Malvern Wells. — -''Trifo- 

 lium procumbens Linn. var. majus Koch. Leigh ; Mrs. C. Urqu- 

 hart Stewart. — ■■'Crepis cainUaris Wallr. var. diffusa (DC). Abun- 



