1900.] MASON BEE 175 



inspected) I found a very nice little Samian cup. No 

 more were reported as found ; but after we left I heard of 

 a box being in one of the lofts over the stables, addressed 

 to myself, which when opened was found to contain more 

 of these Samian cups, and also geological specimens from 

 the cliffs. Of course I wrote down at once, but (perhaps 

 equally of course) by that time the box had vanished. 

 Your letter of this morning recalled all this to me, and 

 made me think that very likely the domestic collector 

 of curiosities who appropriated the Samian cups also 

 made a little collection of the coins, whose total absence 

 appeared so surprising. This is a very long story, but 

 I thought it might be of some interest to you. 



I suppose most of our old work-people are gone ? 



Might I venture to trouble you, in case you should be 

 good enough some day to find time to write, kindly to let me 

 know whether my father and mother's grave (vault) just below 

 the high bank with the pathway on the top in Tidenham 

 Churchyard (plate VII.) is in proper repair ? If anything is 

 requisite I think you would likely be so very good as to tell 

 me, and to whom I should apply to do the work. Trusting 

 you will forgive the intrusion on your time of such a long 

 letter, I beg to remain, yours truly, 



ELEANOR A. ORMEROD. 



To Edward T. Connold, Esq., F.E.S., Hon. General Secretary, 

 Hastings and St. Leonards Natural History Society. 



TORRINGTON HOUSE, ST. ALBANS, 



July 4, 1900. 



DEAR SIR, I think that perhaps before this reaches you, 

 you will have heard from the Rev. E. N. Blomfield that 

 these curiously formed damsons, of which you have for- 

 warded me such excellent specimens, owe the galled growth 

 to the attack of a parasite fungus. They are what you called 

 popularly Bladder plums, or Pocket plums (fig. 39), and the 

 cause of this extraordinary growth is the presence of the 

 fungus Exoascus pruni. I do not myself work on Fungi, so 

 I should not have considered myself qualified to give you 

 trustworthy information, but I see in Professor Marshall 

 Ward's good account of this attack, that, besides reproduction 

 taking place by means of the spores carrying the disease 

 from tree to tree, he mentions that the fungus can carry 

 on its existence from year to year by means of its 

 mycelium in the branches. Consequently much pruning 

 back, as well as collecting and burning the " pockets," is 



