NEW AND RARE liRITISH PLANT-GALLS 283 



first year's stems. Its hybrids seem to me to be numerous, 

 especially with the Corylifolii. 



I meet with a plant here and there of the var. hemistemo7i of 

 Mr. Eogers's Handbook which is greyer, more hairy, has entire- 

 based leaflets and no stalked glands, and also, but rarely, with 

 isolated specimens, as I believe, of the he^nistcmon of Dr. Focke 

 and Miiller, which seems, like B. orthoclados Ley, to be inter- 

 mediate between B. plicatus and Sprengelii. The luxuriant var. 

 Bertramii has, I believe, been much confused with B. sulcatus 

 Vest. I have found here plants probably hybrids of plicatus with 

 pulcherri'tmcs and corylifolms, and with Questierii. The var. 

 Bertramii comes into flower about ten days after pseudo-hemi- 

 stemon. It is a larger, less typically suberect plant, and has 

 strikingly beautiful, sharp, irregular, double serratures to its leaves. 



NEW AND BARE BRITISH PLANT-GALLS. 

 By E. W. Swanton. 



During a recent stay in Devonshire I found two galls that are, 

 I think, new records for the British Isles. 



In the Newton Abbot district Geranium lucidum is extensively 

 galled by mites. The galls are very distinctive. The leaves are 

 tufted, swollen, and deformed, with the margins rolled inwards ; 

 the interior of the roll, and very frequently the outer surface, is 

 covered with a felt of yellowish green (occasionally reddish) hairs. 

 The mite that is usually associated with these alterations is 

 Eriophyes geranii Canestrini, but Eriopkyes dolichosoma Canestrini 

 has also been found thereon. I failed to find this gall on other 

 species of Geranium. On the Continent Eriophyes geranii com- 

 monly infests G. sanguineum ; the galls have been recorded from 

 Denmark, France, Italy, and Central Europe. They have been 

 noted on G. molle in Central Europe and France, on G. dissectum 

 in Denmark, and on G. lucidum in Italy. There is no record of 

 mite-galls occurring on G. Bohertianum ; that plant is everywhere 

 shunned by mites, at least by gall-causing species. In many 

 spots near Newton Abbot I found G. hicidum and G. Bohertianum 

 growing side by side with intermingled stems, but in no instance 

 was the latter species galled, though the leaves of the former were 

 badly attacked. The strong-smelling G. Bohertianum evidently 

 contains something that is exceedingly obnoxious to mites, and 

 which serves to protect it against their attacks. 



At Slapton Sands, also at Petit Tor, Torquay, I found the 

 Madder {Bithia peregrina) bearing galls resulting from the presence 

 of the mites Eriophyes ruhice Canestrini. Viewed superficially, 

 an infected plant appears to have swollen flowers, but upon closer 

 inspection it is evident that the hypertrophied parts consist of the 

 undeveloped apical whorls of leaves. The gall is greenish at first. 

 It is usually globular (8x4 mm.) and becomes black when dry. 

 It has been recorded from France, Portugal, Italy, and Algeria. 



For what appears to be another new record I am indebted to 



X 2 



