66 FIRST APPEARANCES OP BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



inland in a continuous procession, which lasted half-an-hour. 

 The weather was calm at the time." (E. R. B.) 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



ELECAMPANE (Inula Hehnium, L.). Additional localities to 

 those given in Mansel-Pleydell's " Flora of Dorsetshire" are 

 Caundle Marsh, by roadside, and between Haselbury Bryan and 

 Woolland, plentiful. (J. R.) 



MEADOW SAFFRON (Cokhicum autumnale, L.). Flowering 

 Aug. 30, at Castle Hill, Buckland Newton. (J. R.) 



COMMON SALLOW (Salix cinerea, L.). On Jan. i, each of two 

 bushes growing in two different, and by no means either warm 

 or sheltered spots, had a few male catkins already out in flower, 

 and the catkins in many bushes in the neighbourhood were 

 already in the white furry stage ! This seems the more remark- 

 able seeing that the autumn of 1905 was exceptionally cold. 

 By Mar. i many bushes were in full bloom. (E, R. B.) 



IRREGULAR BLOSSOMING OF SPRING FLOWERS. Owing to 

 the general mildness of the winter, the spring of 1906 promised 

 at first to be exceptionally early, but March and April were 

 unseasonably cold, and consequently the later spring flowers 

 were behind their normal times in appearing. Such weather 

 conditions ahvays produce great irregularity in the development 

 of vegetation, and this was markedly the case in 1906. For 

 instance, blackthorn began to bloom on February zyth, but 

 many bushes were, nevertheless, in full flower at the beginning 

 of May ; sallow bloom could be found from January ist onward 

 until almost the end of April ; while wood anemones were in 

 full flower, together with wild hyacinths, in early May. 

 (E. R. B.) 



FLOWERING TREES, &c. Apple and pear trees, as well as 

 blackthorn bushes, showed a marvellous profusion of blossom 

 in Purbeck, but, in spite of all their promise, they yielded an 

 exceptionally poor crop of fruit. Gorse bloom was fine and 

 plentiful, the bushes being well covered with flowers, though by 



