‘“WITGHES BROOMS’’ ON BRITISH WILLOWS 99 
eggs, or cysts. Miss Lister and Miss Hibbert-Ware, who have 
eheigees early stages (though, perhaps, not the earliest) have 
been equally unsuccessful. Mr. E. W. Swanton has, I understand, 
euuciead galled flower-buds as ses as the middle of March, with- 
out begs ye any traces of mites; and the age me at Kew hav 
been, I am informed, equally eames This disappearance 
fot the gall, apparently at a very early stage, of the supposed 
originating cause of the development is puzzling, especially when 
we consider the remarkable size to which the growth afterwards 
attains. It is possible that, as in the case of some other witches’ 
brooms and other galls, the growth of some parasitical — 
admitted where the mites have pierced the cortex, ma e 
something to do with this very abnormal development ; at: no 
such fungus has been actually observed. 
at the gall in question has appeared in this country during 
the last few years re is proved, I think, by the fact that a 
is no mention of it in the late Mr. E. T. Connold’s books 
British Galls,*in Mr. E. A. Fitch’ e artiole on “The Galls of Essex, 4 
whose Mono eh Nes of the cl Willows (1913) is tanita to 
most, writes me that the gall in question is quite unknown to him 
Prof. A. Henry, of Dublin, and Dr. C. E. Moss, of Cambridge, both 
inform me that they also are quite unfamiliar with any such gall 
on British Willows. It is quite inconceivable that so striking a 
growth could have remained unnoticed by such authorities on 
British Willows, had it been established long in this country. 
tter of fact, so far as I have been able to ascertain, it 
was first noticed in Britain no longer ago than , when, on 
specimens from Enfield.|| About the same time, Mr. Walter Fox, 
of Romford, saw examples on a willow at Dagenham, but he did 
ch ont ho me fact. oon then or shortly after, too, the was 
serv ound the Epping Forest Museum 
of the Rees Field Club, at Chingford, i and specimens from 
there, preserved in formalin by Mr. William Cole, about the da = 
indicated, are in the Essex Museum ‘of Natural History a 
Stratford. Soon after com: dato, too, Mr. W. C. Worsdell sat Hr 
and examined specimens from Chingford. 
I myself first saw the gall on 23rd May 1913, venys sepia. 
on the many willows growing around the vast rese of the 
Metropolitan Water Board, at Walthamstow, abort. four miles 
* British Vegetable Galis (1901) and Plant ae of Great Britain (1909). 
+ Trans. Es mated lomo oe ii. pp. 98-156 (1882). 
t British Plant Galis (1912). 
Journ. Roy. Hort Xxxii. p. lxxxix (1907). 
|| Op. eit., xxxvi. p. exvii- (1910-11). 
