lyo NOTES. 



Lathyrus tuberosus, L. in Sussex.— One of the few plants which Essex 

 botanists have fondly claimed as peculiar to our county must, it seems, lose that 

 title to our regard. Laihyrics tiiberosu t^he Peas Earth-nut, of which a coloured 

 figure is given in Gibson's " Flora of Es^ " has been found by Mr. R. D. Postans, 

 " on the shingle beach at Eastbourne, in i bloom in the first week in August." 

 Mr. F. H. Arnold has some interesting not on this plant in the October number 

 of "Science Gossip." He says: — "The 'ocality in which the Sussex plant 

 occurs, i.e., the shingle beach at Eastbourne, differs greatly from that mentioned 

 by Gibson, viz., in several corn-fields and also along the hedgebanks and borders 

 of the same fields. The figure of this species as given in Gibson's ' Flora ' is a 

 good one, with the exception of the leaflets, which are represented as ovate, 

 whereas they are obovate ; but truer to nature than either the engravings of Gibson 

 or Syme is the old woodcut of Gerard, headed ' I'mc glandes. Pease Earth-nut,' 

 while his verbal description, allowing for the absent ^ of technicalities, is excellent. 

 ' The Pease Earth-nut commeth vp with slender and weake stalkes : the leaues be 

 thin, and little, growing vpon slender stems, with clasping tendrels at the ends, 

 with which it embraceth and taketh hold of such things as stand neere vnto it : 

 the floures on the tops of the stalkes are like to those oT Pease, but lesser, of a 

 purple colour, in smell not vnpleasant ; in their places cometh vp long cods, in 

 which are three or foure round seeds : the roots be thicke, long, like after a sort of 

 acorns, but much greater, blacke without, gray within, in taste like to the Chess- 

 nut : out of which beneath doth hang a long slender string.' He mentions also 

 that by the Dutch, the curious tubers are called ' tailed mise, of the similitude or 

 likenesse of domesticall mise, which the blacke, round nuts, with the piece of the 

 slender string hanging out behind do represent,' and to a dead and shrivelled 

 mouse they have certainly a quaint resemblance. Gerard states that although this 

 plant is common in Germany, he had not heard of its occurrence in England. 

 [Gibson has an erroneous statement to the effect that Gerard mentions it as a 

 native of England.] In Holland it is stated to be used as an esculent. We have 

 now records of its occurrence in Essex and Sussex, but how it got to either of 

 these localities, so far distant from each other, has not as yet been accounted for." 



Colias edusa at Woodford. — As this butterfly appears to have been rare 

 throughout the country during the past season, it may be interesting to note that 

 I caught a specimen (a male) on Woodford Green, on September 7th. — (Master) 

 William S. Argent, Broomhill, Woodford, Essex, October 6th, 1888. [The 

 " Clouded-Yellow " butterfly has been rare in almost all parts of England since 

 the great Colias irruption of 1877. I well remember the immense numbers of the 

 in-ects in the forest districts in August of that year. In a clover-held belonging 

 to Dr. Sewell, at Woodford Bridge, the butterfly swarmed in an astonishing 

 manner, and literally thousands might have been netted in a day. As the result of 

 three visits to this spot my brothers and myself secured twenty specimens of the 

 rare aberration ^^helice'"oi the female. The numbers of individuals of such 

 insects as Vanessa atalanta, V. io and V, cardui in and about that field almost 

 surpassed belief, and the spot presented a series of entomological pictures only 

 paralleled in my experience by some of the rides in the New Forest in 1875, 

 with their almost tropical garishment of hundreds of Argymtis paphia, Limenitis 

 Sibylla and other handsome butterflies. Colias edusa still frequented the neigh- 

 bourhood until about the middle of September, and the last specimen noticed by 

 us was on the 27th of that month. Since that time the only living example I have 

 seen was one at Chingford, in Augub.t, 1886. The hundreds of thousands of the 

 butterfly which must have flown in Essex in August and September, 1887, utterly 

 disappeared at the end of the season, and left apparently no descendants to delight 

 our eyes in future years. We have had many summers to our senses quite as 

 suitable for the insect ; the food-plant is grown in every parish ; and stock non- 

 sense about exterminating collectors cannot be imported into such a case as this. 

 Yet so far as I know only solitary sporadic specimens have been seen in the county 

 since the above mentioned memorable season. Few phenomena in the wonderful 

 world of insects are more mysterious than this sudden appearance and disappearance 

 of species of butterflies. — W. Cole.] 



