16 TIIR VICTOlilAN NATURALIST. 



certained that they are not due to insect agency, and they may 

 start from old tree trunks, or where a branch has broken off, and 

 probably arise from clusters of adventitious buds. A bud under 

 these circumstances tries to develop a shoot, but owing to im- 

 perfect nourishment it soon dies at the top, then new buds at the 

 base of this repeat the process next year, and so on until quite a 

 cluster is formed. This compact mass of suppressed shoots may 

 form a hard, rounded boss-like structure, and become more or 

 less disconnected from the parent trunk. 



Berkeley — in the Gardeners' Chronicle, at p. 756 (1855) 

 — states that gnaurs occasionally, though freely developing 

 above, may adhere by a strong peduncle or stalk of the wood, 

 and this leads us to consider the form of the present specimen. 

 We may imagine that the cluster of buds grew out at first as a 

 relatively slender projection, owing to a scarcity of nutriment ; 

 then, subsequently, there was sufficient nourishment provided to 

 enable the expansion to take place at the top. However this 

 may be, there is no doubt of the woody nature of the specimen 

 and of its being one of those lusns naturce so frequently met 

 with in different departments of science. Every credit is due to 

 Mr. Gray — or rather, I am informed, to Mrs. Gray, who actually 

 picked up the specimen — for bringing it under notice, and this 

 short account of an interesting form may be the means of leading 

 field naturalists to observe any examples of such excrescences on 

 our native trees. No doubt the size, the shape, and the situation 

 all tended to suggest the idea of a mushroom, and when we 

 remember that Bridgevvater — on the coast, about nine miles from 

 Portland — is noted for the natural curiosity known as the 

 " petrified forest," we can easily understand how this hard, 

 woody, mushroom-like body came to be regarded as a petrified 

 mushroom, although, of course, the meaning intended is lignified 

 rather than petrified. 



It would be interesting to visit the locality and explore it for 

 one's self, in order to see if any similar specimens may be found 

 still attached to their parent trees. 



The Agricultural Gazelle of Netv South Wales for April 

 contains several articles of interest to naturalists. Mr. W. W. 

 Froggat, F.L.S., Government Entomologist, contributes some 

 notes, with illustrations, on the Cicadas, " Locusts," and their 

 habit? ; also on the Potato Moth, Lita solaiiella, Boisd. Another 

 interesting article by Mr. C. T. Musson, of the Hawkesbury 

 Agricultural College, shows how the rainfall often varies in 

 adjacent localities, and, as the result of practical experiments, 

 shows the variations recorded by a series of rain-gauges set about 

 70 yards apart, each representing an area of one acre. 



