86 
NOTES. 
AUDIBILITY OF THE SPORE DISCHARGE IN OTIDEA LEPORINA. 
On the visit of the Cryptogamic Society of Scotland to Perth, 
in September 1920, Otidea leporina was found in abundance, 
and I brought away half-a-dozen mature specimens to Glasgow. 
They were packed in a box, each one wrapped in paper, and they 
remained there twenty-four hours. 
On opening the box the specimens were placed on the table, 
and I attended to something else. While thus engaged I heard 
every now and then a slight hissing sound, but, being busy, 
paid no attention to it, till looking by chance at the table I 
saw one of the Otideae puff, and immediately heard a hiss. 
The hiss was quite distinct, and required no effort to hear it, 
although I was fully six feet from the plants. Mr Stone’s 
experience as recorded in the Transactions, vol. VI, p. 294, 
occurred to me, and placing my six specimens in a row I sat 
for some time watching my miniature field battery at work. 
First one fired (puffed), followed by the report (hiss), then 
another carried on, the others following in their turn at intervals 
of not more than two or three minutes. I noticed as the time 
passed that the intervals between the puffs increased in length. 
What surprised me was the frequency with which they puffed, 
but as I was preparing for a journey to the south of England 
I had to put the specimens away without having noted the 
length of the intervals between the puffs, the length of time 
they retained the power of puffing, or the extreme distance at 
which the hiss could be heard. These points, however, will 
form material for future investigation. 
R. B. JOHNSTONE. 
CALIFORNIAN BEES. 
During the past two years queries have been repeatedly recetved 
concernjng the identity of what has been variously called “‘Cali- 
fornian Bees,’’ “‘ Palestine (or Jerusalem) Bees,’’ “Macedonian 
(or Salonika) Bees,” “Mesopotamian Bees,” ‘‘ Belgian Bees,”’ 
‘Egyptian Bees,” ‘‘ Wine Bees,” “‘ Water Bees,’’ ‘Balm of Gilead,”’ 
etc. This consists of solid, white, semi-translucent lumps usually 
about the size of peas and looks somewhat like pieces of 
soaked sago or tapioca. It is cultivated in sugar solution to which 
syrup is sometimes added and gives rise by fermentation to what 
is often called ‘‘ Bee wine.’”’ The lumps move in the solution, the 
