SHORT NOTES 211 



out the pest. Eventually it was decided to spray the trees with 

 chroiiiate of lead at such a time that the young caterpillars, on 

 hatching out, should have only poisoned food. The spraying 

 operations were carried out by portable high-pressure pumping 

 apparatus, self-supporting telescopic ladders being provided to 

 reach the tree-tops some forty feet from the ground. This was, 

 I believe, the first occasion on which attempts were made to 

 spray such large trees, and there is not much doubt that the oaks 

 at Ashtead could be treated in a similar manner. It is, of course, 

 now too late in the season to undertake preventive measures, but 

 if spraying were undertaken early next May, I have not much doubt 

 that the pest could be eradicated. — J. Compton. Merryweather. 



CoNVALLARiA MAJALis, L. — In Martyn's edition of Millers 

 Gardener's Dictionary there is a note under the description of 

 this plant as follows : "There are several varieties of the Lily of 

 the Valley ... a fourth with reddish or red flowers ; this, 

 Mr. Miller aflQrms, continued the same above forty years : the 

 flowers are smaller, the stalks redder, and the leaves of a darker 

 green than in the common sort." No localities are stated. In 

 May, 1872, I accompanied Mr. F. J. Hanbury in an excursion to 

 the Quantock Hills, and in a woody combe not far from Sto- 

 gumber we found Gojivallaria majalis with rose-coloured flowers, 

 in some quantity. My specimens do not differ materially, except 

 in colour, from the ordinary form, though the leaves are perhaps 

 narrower than usual. Whether or not the nature of the soil 

 influences the colour may be doubtful, but the soil in which the 

 Convallaria was growing, and of all the land thereabout, was a 

 dark red. In Farley wood, near Winchester, flowers of this 

 plant " stained with dull red or crimson at the bottom," have 

 been noticed: see Townsend's Flora of Hampshire, p. 431, 

 2nd edition. The soil there w^ould be chalk. — Frederic 

 Stratton. 



Forfarshire Plants. — Early in last July Mr. and Mrs. E. H. 

 Corstorphine kindly showed me many interesting plants in v.c. 90. 

 The following are, I believe, new records : Ilieracium duriceps 

 F. J. Hanb. Eocks by the Eiver Isla, Den of Airhe. Salix 

 aurita x viminalis. Swampy thicket, Ochterlony Bog, near 

 Guthrie; confirmed by Eev. E. F. Linton. Carex CEderi Eetz., 

 var. cyperoides Marsson. Boggy ground, Sands of Barry ; a very 

 pretty, small form, much like specimens of mine, determined by 

 Kiikenthal. Mr. Arthur Bennett agrees. — Edward S. Marshall. 



Carex rariflora on Ben Lawers ? — Is it not most likely that 

 the plant recorded under this name by Mr. Gumming (p. 145) 

 was C. atrofusca Schkuhr {ustulata Wahlenberg), which does 

 occur on that mountain, and on two others, not very far away ? 

 There is a considerable resemblance between these two species, 

 especially when young. C. rariflora, though decidedly local, is 

 usually abundant where it does occur ; whereas C. atrofitsca 

 seldom flowers at all plentifully in its few known British stations. 

 — Edward S. Marshall. 



