CORRESPONDENCE. 21 
i Correspondence, 
Dupizy Geronocican Socrery’s Procunpines.—I wish, from the 
standpoint of a Geological Surveyor, to call the attention of readers 
of the “Midland Naturalist” to the above-named publication of one 
of the Societies of the ‘Midland Union.” ‘Two of the papers, by 
Messrs. Oliver and W. J. Harrison, are on sections on the Midland 
Railway, and these are not confined to descriptive text, but are accom- 
panied by plates which give measured drawings of the sections on a 
large scale, and also plans, so that the exact position of any outcrop, &c., 
can be fixed on the ground when the cutting has been turfed over. 
This careful record of facts that in all likelihood will soon be hidden 
up cannot fail to be valued by field-geologists, to whom there can hardly 
be a more gloomy sight than a large railway-cutting, beautifully smoothed 
and turfed, of which no record has been kept. I would therefore impress 
on members of our many provincial societies to note all facts, however 
trifling they may seem to be; and if any one is in doubt as to how 
such noting should be done, let him look at the publication referred 
to. Others of the papers have small plans to show the place of the 
section or fossils described. Here again is a good example, for the want 
of precision in such matters has greatly lessened the value of many papers. 
As the Dudley and Midland Geological Society ceased to publish its 
proceedings for some years, and has but lately gone into print again, such 
sure signs of life are welcome, and to none more so than to working 
Geologists.—W. WHITAKER. 
Ceratopus at PrnartH.—Aust Cliff was for a long time the only 
British locality which yielded teeth of that remarkable fish the Ceratodus. 
I found a fragment of a tooth at the Spinney Hill Rhetic Section, near 
Leicester, in 1873, (it was kindly identified by Mr. W. Davies, of the 
British Museum,) and Mr. HE. Wilson has since got it, near Notting- 
ham. Ican now record its occurrence at Penarth, near Cardiff, where 
it has been found by Mr. Storrie, of the Cardiff Museum.—W. J. H. 
Herr Cantiana.—At p. 323, Vol. I.,I gave a few notes on the 
distribution of this species in Britain, placing the county of Northampton 
in my list of theoretical habitats. Upon receiving the December number 
of the ‘Midland Naturalist,’ I at once turned to the very excellent 
index, and found that Mr. T. C. Musson, of Nottingham, has recorded 
(p. 50) its occurrence at Kingscliffe, Northamptonshire. He has kindly 
sent me specimens. ‘The only adult shell is smaller than usual, white 
and thin, the latter being an anomalous character, (not uncommon 
among the Mollusca,) seeing that it occurred on the Great Oolite. I 
take this opportunity of correcting a mistake I made in giving Littleton, 
near Hivesham, asa habitat. Mr. Slatter tells me it should have been 
‘¢ Evesham, particularly near the ancient walls of the Abbey enclosures,” 
near Littleton being the locality for Cochlicopa tridens.—G. SHERRIFF 
Tyz. 
FERTILISATION OF OrncHIps.—During the summers of 1874-5, I netted, 
on Boxley Warren, for purposes of exchange with a friend, for dissection, 
over 2,000 Lepidoptera. Of these, thirty-five had the anthers of Orchis 
pyramidalis (a common species here,) adhering to their trunks in the 
manner described and figured in Darwin’s “ Fertilisation of Orchids.” 
They were of the following species:—Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small 
Heath, Small White, Chalk Hill Blue, Common Blue, Burnet Moth. In 
connection with the last-named species, I had the rare good fortune to 
witness the whole operation. Seeing a Burnet seated on a large head of 
Orchis pyramidalis, I cautiously approached with pocket lens in one hand 
E 
