11 



tould induce Mr. W. H. Hammond U) come over from Canterbury. He was delighttd with the 

 magnificent plant, taking an excellent photograph of it, as well as of the mass ot other flowers grow- 

 ing in the wood — though then much past their beauty. 



The rare Orohanche elaiior was met with the same day, but rather going off ; two fine spikes of 

 flowers were also gathered by the Kev. J. Taylor on the 20th of July. 



In the cutting doivn of our woods and the felling of timber many insects may be destroyed, 

 especially such as feed on the solid wood. An amusing instance has just come under my notice. 

 Amongst a few pieces of charcoal purchased in the town, and probably made in thft woods not far off, 

 one piece had a gallery, in which was a nearly full grown Larvte of the Lepidopterous type — which 

 had been literally roasted alive ! There can be little doubt it was the LarviE of one of the 

 Hornet Moths, most likely Xijeria crabroni/ormis, as the wood seemed like a branch of the common 

 Sallow on which that insect feeds. The species is scarce in this district, and it well may be if it often 

 gets treated in this way. Sti-ange it should have fallen to the lot of one who very rarely requires the 

 carbonized wood, and that one an entomologist 1 



W. K. JEFFERY. 



Ashford, 



October 26, 1908, 



Three more Lizard Orchids were discovered during July, one near Adisham, which was shown to 

 me by Mr. John Jacob, one near Brook, and one to the East of Wye Downs ; these two last were 

 •exhibited in a chemist's shop at Ashford. I can now renxember seven plants of this orchis having 

 been found in East Kent. It is a pity that these orchids are always plucked while in flower ; if people 

 would only leave them to go to seed, to be dispersed in their thousands by the winds, no doubt aftet- 

 some years they would become much more plentiful. 



The oak undergrowth has been violently attacked everywhere during the summer by a fungus — 

 one of the powdery mildews ; I have seen acres of one year old shoots so white as to look as if covered 

 with hoar frost. As no perithecia have as yet been found the species has not been determined. I 

 have never seen it before. The American gooseberry mildew has been reported as having increased 

 enormously in Kent, and bids fair in time to annihilate all the plantations. 



W. H. HAMMOND. 



The "find" of the season is Salvia verticillata, found in Ebns Vale, near Dover. The plant was 

 identified at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinbui-gh. According to the " Flora of Kent " this plant 

 has been found as a casual between Crossness and Erith, and in Woolwich Arsenal ; also as a garden 

 escape at Bromley. These places are all fifty miles at least from where I found it. It was growing 

 out in the country on the top of the Down. The nearest house is a shepherd's cottage do»ii near the 

 bottom of the valley, about a quarter of a mile off. The Rector of the parish— the Rev. Mr. Walker- 

 informs me that so far as he can find out there never was a house near the habitat of this plant. It 

 was growing beside a clump of furze in a grass park that has not been ploughed for twenty years. 

 There was a patch of this Salvin consisting of a good many plants. It seemed not to be a casiuil, but 

 to be fairly well established. In 1908 this same plant was found by me as a casual in Lcith Docks. 

 Scotland. It is not mentioned in " The Students' Flora," by Hooker (second edition), nor in the 

 tenth edition of the " London Catalogue " — not even as a casiml. It is, however, mentioned in Dun's 

 "Alien Flora of Britain." 



On the 20th of July, Mr. W. R. Jeffrey, of Ashford, took me to Westwell Down to see the won- 

 derful show of coloiu- then displayed by the masses of Echium vuUjare (Viper's Bugloss), Verbuscum 

 Thapsus (Great MiUIein), and Verbascum Lychnitis (White Mullein), at that time in flower on the 

 southern slope of the Down. When looking at the two kinds of muUeins we both noticed, I think 

 about the same time, that some of these plants were much taller than the othei-s. These giants 

 were about seven feet in height, whilst the others were only about four. On exa minin g the giants we 

 soon came to the conclusion that they were hybrids. Greater luxuriance of gi'owth is frequently an 

 indication of hybridisation (see Sti-asburger's Text Book of Boluinj, English translation, p. 288). The 

 habit of growth of this hybrid was like rcbciscuiii Li/iic'iinids, that is to say, it had acenti-il tall spike 

 with a number of (seven or so) smaller spikes starting from the centi"al one at different places and 

 curving upwards. The other parent, Verbascum Thaj^sus, had either a simple spike or a large main 

 spike, with one or two very short spikes starting from it. Though the hybrid had the habit 

 of growth of Lyehnilis, its flowers were yellow like those of Thapsits. The flowers of 

 iyi-fcntfis are cream coloured, abnost white. The flowers of the hybrid were intermediate in 

 size between those of Thapsus and Lychnitis. The leaves of the cross were slightly reciurent. 

 The leaves of Thapsus ai-e very decurrent, whilst those of Lychnitis are not at all. All 

 the hybrid filaments were hairy all the way up like those of Lj/rftiii'is. In the case of Thapsus the 

 two long filaments are nakeil. The upper surface of the leaves of the hybrid were not so green as 

 that of Lychnitis ; but the upper sxiriace of the cross was not woolly like that of Thapsus. Strasburger 

 says (p. 288) that " hybrids, particularly those from nearly related parents, exhibit a tendency to 

 become double." I did not notice any double flowers on any of the hybrids. This hybrid has been 



