232 Notes and Comments. 



PERTHSHIRE NATURALISTS. 



The Perthshire Naturalists' Society continues to publish 

 its valuable Transactions, and Part 2, of Volume VII., is 

 before us. There are several valuable papers, principally 

 referring to the Society's area of operations. G. F. Bates 

 describes ' Anomalies of Plant Structure ' ; W. Barclay 

 writes on ' A Forgotten Perthshire Botanist — Robert Macnab' ; 

 J. R. Matthews on ' Zannichella palustris Linn, in Perth- 

 shire ' ; and H. Coatcs gives the ' History of the Strathmore 

 Meteoric Fall of 3rd December, 1917 ' ; the last a detailed 

 and exceptionally valuable contribution. 



A ' BOULDER ' STORY. 



On one of the late Prof. G. Frederick Wright's early visits 

 to this country, he gave an address at the York Museum, 

 during which he gave a lantern illustration of what he de- 

 scribed as the largest Boulder in the World. It was in 

 America. At the close of the lecture someone in the audience 

 pointed out that in England, in Norfolk, there was a much 

 larger boulder of chalk, upon which an entire village was 

 built, and the village obtained its water supply by boring in 

 that boulder of chalk ! Also that the speaker had obtained 

 this information from Professor Wright's own book on ' Man 

 and the Glacial Period ' ! 



GROSSULARIATA. 



In The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for June, Mr. 

 G. T. Porritt has a valuable paper on the ' Huddersfield 

 varieties of Abraxas grossidariata, with description of a new 

 variety.' He points out that perhaps in no locality in the 

 United Kingdom is the species known to vary so much as in 

 the Huddersfield area. Of the named forms there are no 

 fewer than thirty-three, without the alleged varieties of 

 varleyata named by the Rev. G. H. Raynor, already referred 

 to in these columns. 



A NEW VARIETY. 



Mr. Porritt describes a new variety under the name of 

 melanapicata. He says, ' In this variety the wings are 

 more or less normal, except that the apex of the fore wings 

 is entirely filled in with a large, more or less square blotch 

 of black. The form occurs occasionally from wild larvae, 

 and my few cabinet specimens of it include one covered with 

 the nigrosparsata spotting.' 



A BEAVER DAM. 



Mr. George Sheppard, B.Sc, F.G.S., writes from Edmonton, 

 Alberta, as follows : — 'I enclose two photographs of a Beaver 



