£6 



wing, and I have no doubt that a considerable number of species 

 might be found on these little-frequented downs if they were properly 

 investigated. 



With regard to plants I have little to say, but I could not help 

 noting the remarkable way in which the common centaury (Erythrtea 

 centaurium) accommodates its method of growth to its surroundings. 

 On the lower parts of the downs, where there is a fairly luxuriant 

 growth of herbage, it is met with as a fine erect plant of some eight 

 to ten inches in height ; but on the higher parts of Beachy Head, 

 where the herbage is much walked over, and consequently very short, 

 the stem of the centaury is also so diminutive that the flower-head 

 has the appearance of springing directly from the ground. This 

 dwarf form has, I believe, been described by some authors as a 

 distinct species ; but one has only to follow the growth of the plants 

 as they occur on the various parts of the downs to see that the 

 gradations of height follow so closely upon one another, from the 

 tallest in the hollows to the shortest on the down tops, that it is 

 impossible to say where any dividing line can be drawn. In a field 

 that I believe was supposed to be cropped with oats, but the chief 

 produce of which was scarlet poppies {Papaver r/ia'as), I found one 

 plant of that species having pure white flowers, and at a short distance 

 from it one in which they were intermediate, — not that they were pink 

 by the blending of the two colours, but scarlet flowers with a con- 

 siderable amount of white splashing. On visiting Alfriston, the 

 quietest village that I ever set foot in, I noticed that the mullein 

 ( Verbascum, sp.) was growing luxuriantly out of the hard stone wall of 

 the parish church. I believe the plant is occasionally found in 

 similar situations, but it was its unusual robustness that attracted my 

 attention in this instance. 



I have, if my memory serves me, referred on a former occasion to 

 the immense number of snails [Helix aspersa) that harbour in the 

 ivy-covered walls of the Eastbourne parades. In dry weather not a 

 snail is to be seen ; but it happened that one afternoon, after a 

 couple of hours' steady rain, I was strolling along one of the upper 

 walks when I came to a spot where a grass lawn reaches to the top 

 of one of these walls. For some reason, best known to themselves, 

 the snails appeared to have congregated at this particular spot, and 

 were making their way across this piece of grass in a steady stream. 

 There must have been many hundreds of them, all moving in one 

 direction as fast as they could crawl. The probable attraction was 

 some flower-beds at the opposite side of the grass, some ten or twelve 

 feet away from the wall, but the plants in the beds could not be seen 

 by the crawling snails, nor was it likely that a sense of smell could 

 have influenced them, as the wind was blowing from the snails 

 towards the flowers, and would therefore take the scent away. What 

 then could have influenced the snails to all take the one direction ? 



As you will have gathered from the title of this paper, I make no 

 pretence to having worked out any special points or new features in 



