THE WEATHER OF OCTOBER. 295 



Natural History Notes by Observers. — Shifnal. — Dahlias and other 

 tender plants cut down on 20th ; Acorns an abundant crop, as also of 

 Hips, but scarcely any Haws or Horse-chestnuts ; Potatos a great 

 crop and little disease, especially the Champions. Last detachment of 

 Swallows took flight on 11th. More Rectory. — A solitary Swallow was 

 flittering about on the 11th and 12th, but then disappeared. The first 

 Fieldfare appeared on the 22nd, followed by large flocks on the 24th. 

 Cheltenham. — All leaves off the Limes, Walnuts, and Chestnuts by the 

 last week of October. Bishop's Castle. — The weight of snow on the Oak 

 trees caused immense damage to the trees, some being completely stripped 

 of their branches. The damage on the Earl of Powis' estate is reckoned 

 at several thousand pounds. Burton-upon-Trent. — White Pheasant at 

 Bretby seen daily for some time ; 0. dilatata taken at Bretby October 

 14th. The Spanish Chestnuts have not produced so little fruit for some 

 years. Fieldfares seen November 2nd. 



Carrcspnkntc. 



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Late Swallows.— On the 16th of this month (November) two 

 Swallows were seen flying up and down in the shelter of a belt of trees 

 near this village. It was blowing very hard at the time. This is late 

 for them to be here. — Oliver V. Aplin, Bodicote, Oxon. 



Bana esculenta, (Edible Frog,) near Cheltenham. — On Easter 

 Monday, 1878, I captured, near Cheltenham, what I then thought was a 

 very fine specimen of the Common Frog. It has since, however, proved 

 to be the Edible Frog, Rana esculenta, and therefore, I believe, worth 

 recording. — Alfred Shrive, 66, New Summer Street, Birmingham. 



Phyllody of the Floral Organs of a Grass. — A few days since, 

 walking over Middleton Heath, I gathered what seemed at first sight a 

 viviparous state of the false oat grass, Avena elatior ; as from the glumes 

 of each of the spikelets proceeded what seemed to be merely a young 

 grassy shoot. Closer examination, however, proved it to be a case of 

 phyllody of the lower pales of both the upper and lower flowers of this 

 plant ; each pale having developed into a perfect green leaf, consisting of 

 leaf sheath, ligule, and lamina. These leaves, however, differed from 

 ordinary leaves in this particular — that each leaf was terminated by a 

 narrow attenuate membranous process exactly similar to the terminating 

 point of the pales, and from the back of this process, either from the 

 middle or from the apex, (according as it represented the upper or the 

 lower flower) proceeded a straight or a twisted and kneed awn. The 

 appearance was very singular, and was an excellent example establishing 

 the dictum of the great German poet Goethe, who first recognised in the 

 flower and fruit the recurrence of the foliage. — J.E.B. 



Phenological and General Observations taken in the vicinity of 

 Farley, Staffordshire, during September, 1880. — 1st, ripe fruit of Ritbus 

 fruticosus (the Blackberry) first seen on high ground on left main water- 

 shed of Churnet R. ; hence a position subject to a more equable tempera- 

 ture and more favourable climatological conditions than the low-lying 

 and enclosed valley below. 3rd, fruit of Corylus Avellana first gathered 

 in ripe condition. 15th, leaves of Sycamore beginning to turn yellow. 

 21st, Spircea ulmaria still in flower by rivulet near foot of Weaver Hills, 

 but only one plant seen in this condition. About same time, and in 



