SHORT NOTES 345 



only occasionally present ; the mites were always connected with 

 the deformations, and are considered to be the origin of the 

 abnormal growth, though it may be occasionally due to minute 

 spiders. Prof. Zopf also examined specimens of B. scopulorum 

 var. incrassata t and of R. cuspidata var. crassa from the west 

 coasts of France. These plants bear a striking resemblance to 

 each other, as well as to the hypertrophied R. kullensis, and on 

 examination were found to be inhabited by the same gall-forming 

 mite. The Professor regrets his inability to examine the British 

 specimens, R. scopulorum var. incrassata from the Channel Islands, 

 South-west England and North-west Ireland, and R. cuspidata 

 var. crassa from the Channel Islands, North England and North- 

 east Scotland. Since reading the paper I have examined these 

 specimens and I find all the phenomena noted by Prof. Zopf 

 present in the British forms — the thickened thallus, exactly like 

 his representation of the deformed R. kullensis, the abundance of 

 spermogonia, the holes of two dimensions in the thallus, the 

 quantities of small round or oval, dark-coloured excrementa, and 

 the remains of mites, though these may not be the original gall- 

 formers. There seems no reason to doubt that these varieties are 

 merely gall-bearing forms of their respective types.— A. Lorrain 

 Smith. 



New Localities of Rare Lichens. — On looking over a series 

 of lichens submitted to me by Mr. W. West, of Bradford, and col- 

 lected by him in the Outer Hebrides and in North-west Ireland, 

 I have found included some specimens entirely new to the dis- 

 tricts. One of these, Pertusaria gyrocheila, was found on Clesham, 

 a mountain in Harris, 2500 ft. high, the highest in the Outer 

 Hebrides. The species was founded by Nylander, on a specimen 

 collected by I. Carroll near the top of Ben Lawers in 1864. It 

 was collected again by the Eev. J. M. Crombie, at a later date, 

 from the same locality. I am unaware of any other record for 

 this very striking-looking lichen. On the rocks of the west coast 

 of Lewis Mr. West has collected plants of Ramalina Curnowii 

 Cromb., distinguished by the black base of the laciniae and the 

 black spermogonia. It has been recorded hitherto only from 

 southern localities, the Channel Islands, Scilly, and Cornwall. 

 Another southern species, Roccella fuciformis DC, he has col- 

 lected near Westport, on the coast of Co. Mayo. It is battered 

 almost out of recognition, but the microscopic characters of 

 thallus and fruits leave no doubt of its identitv. Crombie notes it 

 as rare in the islands of South-west Ireland. It is most com- 

 monly found on maritime rocks in the Channel Islands and the 

 south coast of England. — A. Lorrain Smith. 



Scutellaria alpina L. — I am not aware that the extreme 

 variability in colour of Scutellaria alpina has been put on record. 

 Coste, in his Flore de la France, says simply, " fleurs bleues avec 

 16vre inferieure blanchatre." Having examined some hundreds of 

 these handsome flowers this summer, I find M. Coste's descrip- 

 tion somewhat misleading. The colour of the flower is hardly 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 45. [September, 1907.] 2 c 



