360 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union :„ Botanical Section. 



giving percentages of the various natural orders represented in 

 the different area groups ; his paper was illustrated by a large 

 series of specimens, and evoked much interesting discussion. 

 The spread of the Pineapple weed (Matricaria discoidea), 

 which Mr. J. Beanland cited as a rarity thirty years ago and 

 seen on Baildon Green, is now lining the roadsides by the 

 loneliest farm buildings in the wildest localities, and seems an 

 example of distribution more striking than the Canadian water 

 weed of a previous generation. 



lmpatiens glandulifera which is now a feature of most of 

 our river sides, as cited by Mr. W. B. Haley, is only a quite 

 recent introduction ; he also mentioned Convolvulus americanus 

 as making headway on the banks of the Calder. 



Dr. H. H. Corbett gave some particulars of the 

 vegetation of Martin Beck Wood, on the border of Yorkshire 

 and Nottinghamshire. The Doncaster Scientific Society have 

 had permission to work here during the past year, and there 

 are some interesting features. The wood is on the summit of 

 a Bunter sand hill and has a local peat bog with Myrica gale 

 and Carduus pratensis, the latter a very infrequent plant 

 in Yorkshire ; it is intended to publish a full report on the 

 place later. 



Dr. T. W. Woodhead, M.Sc, reported on some experiments 

 the Huddersfield Corporation have made with Professor 

 Bottomley's bacteriaized peat ; he showed a number of photo- 

 graphs, the general results being disappointing, and the con- 

 clusion is that, on a commercial scale, it is unsuccessful, not- 

 withstanding the striking laboratory experiments conducted 

 with it on Duckweed in petrie dishes at the Imperial Institute. 



Mr. Cockerline showed and commented on a series of plants 

 collected around Arncliffe and Upper Wharf edale, and also some 

 interesting sheets of Ranunculus ficaria to which his attention 

 had been directed by Miss Johnstone's paper in The Naturalist. 



Mr. W. H. Burrell had an exhibit of some of the 

 most interesting mosses from the Leeds City area, which were 

 recorded in his paper in The Naturalist, on pp. 119-124. 



The experiment of an indoor meeting with papers, in place 

 of the usual excursion, proved quite successful, the present 

 difficulties of transit being the reason for the change. 



: o : 



Unusual Sites of Starlings' Nests. — This year I found 

 a Starling's nest in an old wall, where a stone had been removed. 

 It was quite open and only about a foot from the ground. I 

 found another perfectly open nest in a ruined windmill near 

 York. Some bricks had fallen out, from the side of the door- 

 way, below the eye level, and here a starling had built a nest 

 in quite a Blackbird-like style. — R. Fortune. 



Naturalist, 



