386 



Neiv Localities for some rare Border Plants. By John 

 Anderson, Preston, Associate Member. 



LiNN^A BoKEALis. 1 found this plant in three different places in a 

 wood betwixt Drakemire and Brockholes. 



The largest patch is about six yards square, in an open caused by the 

 great gale in October 1881. It is creeping over all the upturned roots, 

 and killing out such plants as Sheep's Sorrel and Wood Sorrel, with which 

 it comes in contact. The other one is about three yards by two, in a sort 

 of hollow, among a thin coat of fir needles, where the long straight lines 

 of shoots drew my notice to it. While the last patch is only one yard 

 square, and seemed to be getting quite choked up with a strong growth 

 of the Waved Hair-Grass and Blae-berry shoots, which it very much 

 resembles. 



[This is now the fifth native locality for the famous classical plant in the 

 Eastern Border District. These are Lightfield near Mallerstane ; strip of 

 wood near Gordon Moss ; strip of wood near Longformacus ; Gattonside 

 Moor ; and in a wood between Drakemire and Brockholes ; probably 

 indigenous, and protected by the tufts of Blae-berry bushes.] 



Galium Mollugo. This plant seems to be getting a firm hold in the 

 young fir woods on Preston hill-top, as the patches are getting larger every 

 year, it must have been sown with the grass when they were laid down, 

 before planting, as none of it is to be seen but where the ground was 

 taken from the fields on each side of the wood. 



Rare Fungus. Mr Anderson has also written about a rare subterraneous 

 Fungus, allied to the Truffles, which he has discovered in the woods on 

 Preston Estate, Berwickshire. Specimens having been submitted to the 

 Rev. David Paul, Roxburgh, he replied that it was one of the Tuberacei, 

 and he thought it was Elaphomyces granulatus, Fries, but requested a sight 

 of a few more examples with which Mr Anderson has furnished him. Mr 

 Paul in this his second note states: "I wanted to be certain that the 

 Fungus was not Elaphomyces variegatus, and needed to have fresher 

 specimens with the fructification less mature. There is no doubt it is 

 Elaphomyces granulatus." 



Mr Anderson supplies further information on the species. " I used to 

 see a great many of the same sort of Fungus lying about the cart ruts 

 when they were carting away the wood, when the old Bunkle Wood was 

 cut down about 30 years ago, and used to wonder if they had not been 

 Truffles, so it made me anxious to know their name. When they turned 

 up this year in the wood at Blakehouse Dean, they were lying very close 

 together in the black leaf mould on the edge of the small drains which we 

 were cleaning out. I did not see any roots, nor did I notice any connection 

 with the Scotch Fir roots among which they were growing." 



[The Club is greatly indebted to Mr Anderson for his continuous 

 efforts to promote its objects. — J.H.] 



