3 1 8 NOTE ARACHNIDA. 



The only really interesting plates, — in ' green' and 'ripened' 

 state — but why? — are those which figure what is here called the 

 4 Russian' cornland variety Tragus, of the prickly Saltwort (Salsola 

 Kali), of our sandy seaboard. Whether this curious goat-smelling 

 weed, of the Mediterranean and Euxine countries, considered 

 a distinct species by Linnaeus (Salsola Tragus), is one with S. Kali, 

 transmogrified by the altered conditions of long-continued reproduction 

 with seed-crops, is a moot point ; but certainly in physiognomy it is 

 startlingly different. Not impossibly we have in this queer plant 

 a clue to what has happened in the course of ages to the wheat 

 cereal and some few other plants, the wild originals of which are 



lost 



case 



probable that in vegetable as well as in animal ' Evolution,' missing 

 links, truly existing once upon a time, are, in fact as well as in fancy, 

 of the Past only. To alter to our meaning a well-known line, ' Oh ! 

 for a glimpse of the vanished hand ! as verily still remains the cry 

 of the scientist as of the poet j indeed, to feather for far flight the 

 arrow of investigation, the one must have something of the quality 

 of the other. 



In absence of any explanatory letterpress, one wonders what is 

 the raison d'etre of this expensively got-up affair? There are forty 

 times forty shrubs and weeds in the wilds and clearings of the 

 province, all equally worth their portrait ; why then, this particular 

 selection, half garden ornamentals, half pests of the tiller? We 

 cannot help seeing reflected in this work something of that immaturity 

 and childishness one so often finds in productions of the West, or 

 designed for Americans. One is puzzled by its showiness, and 

 imperfect nature ; and, since lacking in what might have made it of 

 service to practical farmers, one is led to surmise 'twas intended to 

 be an album for the parlour table of shingle-board farms out West, 

 a make-believe of some beauty, to be a 'joy for ever' to well-to-do 

 colonists ' daughters. — F. A. L. 



*? i^i Mm [ ■■ ii ii n ■ 'f 



NOTE— ARACHNIDA. 



Dolomedes mirabilis in Northumberland.— On the 6th of August last, 

 while engaged in searching for Spiders at Steward in the above county, I obtained 

 two specimens of DQlonudes mirabilis Bl., both males, from the ColUna vulgaris 

 growing amongst the rocks below the Peel, and shortly afterwards observed 

 several more of the same species on the waste, stony ground by the river a little 

 beyond the same spot. I am informed by the Rev. J. E, Hull, ML A., who has 

 compiled a catalogue of the Spiders of Northumberland and Durham, that this is 

 the first record of the occurrence of the above Spider in Northumberland 

 Wm. Falconer, 4, Roseviile Avenue, Leeds, Sep. 10th, 1896. 



.j' 



Naturalist, 



