202 CORRESPONDENCE. 



and did well after twenty-four hours' travelling. Corals and sea-anemones 

 have also been sent from Devonshire in the rag packing, and did well 

 after eighteen hours' travelling. The Lancelet has, I believe, been 

 forwarded from Naples to England in the weed packing, and did well 

 after a journey of several days. It is desirable to avoid sending marine 

 animals in the hot summer months, when the temperature ranges 

 upwards of 55 deg. ; but they may be brought personally by rail in the 

 way described in almost any temperature, if damped frequently en route 

 from a bottle of fresh sea-water carried for the purpose. W. E. H." 

 —Eds. M. N.] 



Botanical Notes. — If your correspondent, B. S., (page 176) will refer 

 to "The Midland Naturalist," Vol. EL., page 190, he will find Saxifraga 

 granulata duly recorded from Sutton Park. Alchemilla vulgaris I have 

 also found again since the publication of my notes, but, having already 

 recorded its occurrence there, did not again report it. It may interest 

 your correspondent to know that since my notes were published I have 

 found over forty plants new to the Sutton flora. A list of thirty species was 

 published in the annual report of the Birmingham Natural History and 

 Microscopical Society for 1878, and in 1879 I found the following 

 additional plants : — Barbarea prcecox, Melilotus alba, M. vulgaris, Trifolium 

 striatum, Vicia segetalis, V. Bobartii, Rosa biserrata, Saxifraga granulata, 

 Phleum pratense, Triticum repens, var. aristatum, and Mr. A. W. Wills records 

 Narcissus pseudo-narcissus. As almost all these plants are found on the 

 new embankments they can only be regarded as aliens, so far as Sutton 

 Park is concerned. I am pleased to find that others besides myself are 

 interested in the flora of Sutton Park. — J. E. Bagnall. 



Nephrodium Oreopteris. — Has this fern been noticed in Warwickshire 

 by Mr. Bagnall or any other Midland Botanist ? I have recently found 

 it at Baddesley, near Atherstone. Having botanised only in South Wales, 

 I have not yet had an opportunity of making myself acquainted with 

 the Ferns of Warwickshire, therefore do not know whether Warwickshire 

 Botanists consider this a " find." I have seen it growing in large 

 quantities on the Black Mountains, but would hardly like to call it 

 common, or yet frequent, even. I have not given the precise locality so 

 that I may not be instrumental in aiding its extermination should it be 

 rare.— George T. Harris. 



[Mr. Bagnall sends us the following reply to above question : — 

 " Nephrodium Oreopteris was recorded by Bree from near Coleshill and 

 Allesley, in 1818, vide Purton's " Midland Flora," Vol. n., page 508. As 

 a Warwickshire plant it may be considered as comparatively rare now ; 

 twelve years ago it was fairly abundant on marly soils all round Bir- 

 mingham, more especially in Sutton Park. I still find it in Bree's old 

 districts, and in the Middleton and Kingsbury districts. J. E. B." — 

 Eds. M. N.J 



Botanical Note. — The date, 7th of July, 1880, reminds me of a 

 Botanical ramble this day three years ago, when I first found specimens 

 of Verbascum Lychnitis, catching sight of these tall and distinct-looking 

 plants at some distance off, growing about a depression between steep, 

 and at that time unploughed fields, situated about three-quarters of a 

 mile north-east of the Old Inn, at Whittington, near Kinver, Staffordshire. 

 These and a few other plants there may be worth recording, since I have 

 visited the spot this and last season only to find the land now cultivated, 

 and most of the rarer wild flowers almost, and some apparently quite, 

 extirpated. Having reported the occurrence to one or two Botanists, on 

 the 2nd of August following I met there, by appointment, Dr. Fraser, of 

 Wolverhampton ; Mr. Edwin Lees, F.L.S., of Worcester ; Kev. J. H. 



