SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



45 



brought both specimens indoors, placing them in a 

 cool room. The healthy one fed until the 13th 

 October, and on the 17th October, completed 

 pupation. On November 6th the pupa was 

 removed to a warmer atmosphere, and three days 

 later a female imago emerged — unfortunately a 

 cripple. Had the pupa been allowed to remain in 

 the cooler room until the nth or 12th inst. 

 doubtless the result would have been the emergence 

 of a perfect insect. It will be observed from the 

 preceding notes that the larvae were fed under 

 perfectly natural conditions, and therefore it is 

 reasonable to suppose that many other individuals 

 of a second brood of A. iris have appeared in the 

 New Forest during the present year. I am not 

 aware of such second brood being recorded, as the 

 larvae usually hibernate. — C. H. Watson, Streatham 

 Hill, S.W.; Dec. 1893. 



Planorbis nautileus in Surrey. — According 

 to Taylor and Roebuck's " Census of the Land and 

 Freshwater Mollusca in Great Britain," there have 

 been no authenticated records of P. nautileus, L., in 

 Surrey. I had the good fortune to take a few 

 specimens during last summer on Bookham 

 Common. There are a number of ponds on this 

 common,- most of them rich in specimens of 

 various orders ; but which of them produces P. 

 nautileus I am unable to indicate. The truth is, I 

 took my specimens by accident, on a day when 

 I was dipping my scoop into each of these ponds, 

 and nautileus must have come out attached to 

 weed, for it was not until about a week later that 

 I discovered their presence in the vessel which 

 contained samples from the Bookham ponds only. 

 I hope before long to definitely settle the exact 

 habitat of this species. — E. Step, Epsom ; March, 1894. 



Notes from Western Cork. — During the 

 summer of 1893, from early in March to October, I 

 was collecting Lepidoptera in the beautiful district 

 of Glengarriffe, County Cork ; my work causing me 

 to be about in the woods and on the hills very much, 

 I was struck by the almost utter absence of game in 

 the district, though one would think by the look of 

 the place that game of all descriptions would be 

 abundant. Grouse do occur on the highest moun- 

 tains, but are very rare compared with Scotch and 

 Yorkshire moors, three or four brace being con- 

 sidered a very good bag for one gun. Hares are very 

 scarce ; I saw but three the whole time I was there. 

 This seems to be remarkable, considering that in 

 Wicklow and other mountain districts they are so 

 abundant. Snipe during the summer were not at- 

 all common, now and then we would flush one. 

 On bright moonlight nights they might be observed 

 towering towards the moon, and then, suddenly, 

 with half-closed wings, dropping towards the earth. 

 It is during the drop that the drumming noise is 

 produced. A few woodcocks remain all the summer 

 and I have no doubt breed there, for on two or 

 three occasions I turned up young birds that could 

 only fly a hundred yards or so. Partridges occur 

 sparingly on the cultivated ground, and now and 

 then could be heard calling, but were seldom seen. 

 The same might be said about corncrakes. Among 

 the small birds goldfinches were fairly common, 

 and late in September were met with in flocks of 

 twenty to fifty or more. Once on the Castletown 

 road I saw at least two hundred sitting on the 

 telegraph wires. Larks, on the other hand, seemed 

 to be absent. I did not see or hear one the whole 

 time.—//. Mc Arthur, 35, Averell Street, Hammer- 

 smith, IV.; Feb. gth, 1894. 





DOT71NY* 



^ ^\L 



In the " Irish Naturalist " for March, Mr. H. W. 

 Lett records the discovery of Hypnum confervoides 

 in co. Wicklow, as a moss new to Ireland. 



Dr. E. Baroni, of Florence, is preparing a 

 monograph of the genus Atriplex, and would be 

 glad to have specimens or notes from botanists 

 who have studied the genus. 



Greenland Flora. — In the last issue of the 

 " Proceedings " of the Philadelphia Academy, there 

 is a valuable and interesting paper, entitled "A 

 Comribution to the Flora of Greenland." It is 

 really a description of the botanical collections 

 made by Messrs. Burk and Meehan, during Lieut, 

 and Mrs. Peary's expedition. The species enum- 

 erated include twenty-eight mosses, thirty-nine 

 lichens and a hundred flowering plants and vascular 

 cryptogams. 



Green Hellebore in North Kent. — A 

 couple of years ago I found this generally-con- 

 sidered rare plant in abundance near Eynesford, 

 on the Sevenoaks branch of the London, Chatham 

 and Dover Railway. It is in Park House Wood, 

 about a mile east of the railway station. The 

 wood is preserved, but leave can be obtained, I 

 understand. It is not desirable that wanton waste 

 should occur in collecting specimens, though there 

 is little fear of exterminating Hclleborus viriJis in the 

 Eynsford station, for there is more than an acre of 

 it growing thickly. On the chalky banks through 

 Park House Wood, away from the road to Rumney 

 Street, Viola hirla grows abundantly, flowering 

 very early in spring. The white variety occurs 

 there not infrequently. — John T. Carrington. 



Phcenological Notes on Mosses.— I have 

 found that the date of fructification of mosses does 

 not always coincide with the period of the year 

 given in our various handbooks. Thus, for 

 instance, Braithwaite says Phascum acaulon fruits in 

 March ; but I find it here with ripe fruit as early as 

 October, and usually look for it in perfection in 

 November. Pottia truncata is said to fruit in 

 February and March. Last year, in this district, 

 L found a few ripe fruits by November 22nd, and 

 in the great mass of plants the lids had dehisced, 

 and the spores were shed by the end of November. 

 In February only a few late plants were to be seen. 

 Pottia littoralis had ripe fruit at Southport on 

 December 25th, but mingled with some that were 

 only half-ripe ; and I found it with half-ripe 

 fruit on December 31st at Wallasey, Cheshire, 

 which is a new locality, so far as my knowledge 

 goes, for this species. In the " British Moss Flora" 

 it is said to bear fruit from February to April. 

 Ephemerum serration is another species that fruits 

 here long before the time given by writers on the 

 subject. Were any of these species influenced by 

 the abnormal weather of last year ? This was not 

 the case with Phascum acaulon, as I have found it 

 for several seasons on the earlier date. — ■/. A . 

 Wheldon, H.M. Prison, Liverpool ; March, 1S94. 



