Field Notes. 131 



3. H. ali'o-rubens {Roeh\)Di-uce. {H .atro-piirfyiirea, (Raf ?) 

 H. ovalis Bab.). Growing singly or in pairs on exposed lime- 

 stone surfaces ; perianth segments short, blunt approximating 

 at tip except in bright weather and while sexually ripe ; of a 

 dark brownish red-purple. Bracts small suddenly in relation 

 to the neat blunt oval leaves. Bosses very distinct, seeming 

 wide apart, rugose or plicately coiled like minute yellow balls 

 of tw-ine — no intermediate coil or loop hung dow^n betwixt, 

 I have not seen the extreme type from the pale of Grass Wood, 

 though it does grow on the bare scar-ledges of the district, 

 but I have the assurance of Mr. Cryer that he has done so. 

 Nevertheless, I am certain that cultivation in shade alters its 

 physiognomy greatly. Mr. Druce's var. Crowtheri, clearly 

 comes in here, although, as he has said, seeing that in colour of 

 perianth and leaf-detail, atro-rnhens is ' a variable plant,' we 

 might regard the var. Cron'theri indifferently as a hybrid between 

 two vars., or, as the analogue among the ' atro-rubens ' strain, of 

 ' platvphylla ' among the ' media ' group. I cannot think it 

 matters much which view we take so long as we can differentiate 

 clearly between the actual flower-faces which this wonderfully 

 rich and diversified tract of upland W'Ood and brae presents 

 perennially to our inquisitiveness. I know no square mile 

 (not even Widdy Bank) which furnishes so many — on towards 

 four hundred — Phanerogams ! 



FIELD NOTES. 



ZOOPHYTES. 

 Humber Zoophytes. — Referring to my notes in ' The 

 Naturalist ' for December 1908 (p. 454), it now transpires that 

 the species recorded there as Ohelia dichotoma should be Gono- 

 thyrcea hyalina. — J. Thompson, Hull. 



BIRDS. 



Birds with partial Albinism in N. Lines. — Mr. Douglas 

 Witty informs me that he observed a Fieldfare with a white 

 patch on its back on Christmas Day, and a Sparrow 3 with a 

 white tail on January 5th — both at Barton-on-Humber. — 

 H. E. Forrest, Shrewsbury, 7th February, 1910. 



Qreat= crested Grebe near York — A specimen of the 

 Great Crested Grebe, a male in winter plumage, w^as shot in the 

 Derwent at East Cottingwith, by Mr. T. S. Wright, on February 



1910 Mar. I. 



