312 Yorkshire Naturalists at Redcar. 



Symphytum officinale Stachys sylvatica 



Lysimachia nemoriim Viburnum Opulus 



Galium Cruciatum Tanius communis 



Caucalis arvensis Luzula sylvatica 



Fungi. — The routes traversed were not very suitable for the collection 

 of fungi, and of something like a dozen species noted on the excursion 

 only two are worthy of mention. An Agaric with an unusually long 

 mycelium which came away with the toadstool, was found by \Ir. H. 

 E. Wroot growing in the loose sand of the Dunes. In its immature 

 state it was thought to be a species of Amanitopsis, but after development 

 in the vasculum it was found to be a pink-spored species, Volvaria 

 speciosa Fr. The specimen was forwarded to Mr. A. Clarke, who con- 

 firmed its identity. It is an interesting fact that this species has been 

 recorded from similar situations on the Sand Dunes of both North 

 and South Lancashire by H. Wlicldon. Pleurotus osireatus Jacq. 

 occurred abundantly on an Elm tree at Upleatham. 



DiPTERA. — Mr. Chris. A. Cheetham reports that the flies of the shore 

 and sand hills, especially the former, made up in number of individuals 

 for the scarcity of species; two species of Fucellia Dsr., F. fucorum 

 Fin., and F. maritima Hal., with Actora aestuitm Mg., occurring in great 

 numbers on the decaying seaweeds, etc., at and above the tide marks. 

 The strong wind and absence of sunshine restricted the collection from 

 the sandhills, but two insects which are additions to the Yorkshire list — 

 Pipuncuhis littoralis Bkr., and Chortophila alhula F. (arenosa Ztt.), were 

 plentiful. Another species which is not in our list, but which Wingate 

 gives for Redcar, Mydaea protuberans Ztt. (Caricea exsul Ztt.), was also 

 fairly abundant. The common Blue Bottle here was Protocalliphora 

 groenlandica Ztt. Perhaps the date was early for diptera such as were 

 taken on the Spurn sand-hills in 1919, when the meeting was in August, 

 for Cynomyia, Anthrax and Philonicus were sought in vain. The Asilids 

 were represented by Dysmachiis trigonus Mg., and the Therevidae by the 

 silvery -haired ^'s of Thereva. annulata F., considering the high wind 

 it seems certain that the district would yield many additions and 

 interesting records if worked on good days at varying dates, and our 

 Middlesbro' members ought to find their efforts in this direction amply 

 repaid . 



: o : 



Aspects of Plant Life, by R. Lloyd Praeger. London, S.P.C.K., 

 The Macmillan Co., 1921, 207 pages, 6/- net. ' I got up the moimtain 

 edge, and from the top saw the world stretcht out, cornlands and forest, 

 the river winding among naeadow- flats, and right off, like the hem of the 

 sky, the moving sea.' With this appropriate quotation Mr. Praeger 

 begins his wide survey of plant life, selecting Farleton Fell as his outlook 

 post. He deals especially with the British flora, but when his eye 

 reaches the fringe of the shore he is tempted away to exotic deserts, and 

 illustrates a dozen tj'pcs of desert plants by a coloured frontispiece. 

 Fortunately he rarely wanders far afield, and gives a really interesting 

 survey of the natural history of British plants in chapters dealing with 

 plant associations, migration, interrelations of plants and animals, 

 plants and man, and plant structure. In a chapter on ' past and present,' 

 he deals very effectively in small space with the comple.x problem of the 

 origin of the flora, and the author produces evidence in fa\'our of the 

 view that many species survived the rigours of the ice-age, and that our 

 flora was not so completely blotted out as some geologists would have 

 \is believe. A final chapter deals with saprophytes, parasites and alpine 

 plants, concluding with a l)ricf reference to tlie three stages in the origin 

 of a land flora, the invention of clilorophyll, the migration froni water 

 to land and pollination through the medium of the air, 'wliich won for 

 them the freedom of the land.' 



