344 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



one in another, all by the Port and Pier Eailway, under Clifton 

 Down. The whole of these localities are in the Avon Valley below, 

 and within two miles of, Clifton Suspension Bridge. I have 

 referred to a number of our principal county floras without finding 

 a single mention of this variety ; nor is it included in all British 

 descriptive floras. I judge, therefore, that it must be remarkably 

 rare in this country. Certainly it is a beautiful form, well worthy 



of distinction. Messrs. Hanbury and Marshall 



'/< 



'J. / 



if era. The 



are absent from the counties of Gloucester and Somerset. — James 

 W. White. 



Orchis ericetorum Linton. — -For some years past it has 

 appeared to me that Orchis ericetorum, which I now regard as a 

 distinct species, and 0. maculata had a different period of flower- 

 ing. At Bournemouth I noticed that the former was going oyer 

 when the latter was in full swing ; and I have Carnarvonshire 

 specimens gathered at the same date in the same year with a 

 similar difference in the flowering stage. In this part of Dorset, 

 at the junction of the tertiary with the cretaceous formation, both 

 orchids occur in situations favourable for comparison in this 

 respect. This year I was on the look-out for the first flowering 

 of several plants, and came across 0. ericetorum beginning to 

 flower on the 10th of May. It was not till the 14th of June that 

 0. maculata L. opened its flowers in my garden ; though I saw a 

 plant soon after that may have begun about the 10th. The in- 

 terval therefore in this southern county was for this season a 

 calendar month. It is almost necessary to make this comparison 

 with plants growing in the same neighbourhood and in the same 

 season. A herbarium series has plants from different latitudes 

 and altitudes, and of various seasons. Our floras give May to 

 July as the flowering season of 0. maculata. This is correct for 

 0. ericetorum, which in hilly districts or northern counties linger 

 on through all July. But 0. maculata does not flower in May, I 

 feel assured, and does not usually begin in southern counties till 

 the second week in June, and should rather be described as 

 flowering June-July. — E. F. Linton. 



Gall Formation in Eamalina. — In a recently published paper 

 (Ber. deutsch. Bot. Ges. xxv. (1907) p. 233) Prof. W. Zopf gives 

 an account of his examination of plants of Eamalina kullensis 

 that varied from the normal development in having a short, thick, 

 twisted and deformed thallus, on which spermogonia were richly 

 developed, but, as a rule, no apothecia. The hypertrophied laciniae 

 were hollow, and had here and there small holes scarcely visible 

 to the naked eye, with fewer, much larger openings that looked as 

 if eaten or torn at the edges. Quantities of microscopic excre- 

 menta, round or oval in form and dark in colour, were also to be 

 found on the thallus or in the openings. Bemains of three insects 

 occupying the cavities were found : a species of mite (Acarus), a 

 spider, and one of the Diplopoda, Poh/xenus. The two latter were 



