I IO 



The Museum Gazette 



part of the plant. The oak-apple gall is often very delicately 

 streaked with tints which might be admired on the fruit itself. 

 The galls of the poppy are wcrth notice. If the seed vessel 

 appears unusually large, and is so heavy as to hang down 

 instead of standing erect, it is almost certainly the home of 

 gall insects. It may be of interest to note that whilst our field 

 poppies are often attacked, those grown in our gardens or of 

 foreign species usually escape. The Eschscholtzia in England 

 has no gall. This is probably to be explained by supposing 

 that the proper gall-insect for that plant has not yet been 

 imported. The gall-flies are very discriminative as to the 

 subjects of their attacks, and our indigenous flies do not 

 appear to welcome strange hosts. But few of our numerous 

 imported conifers appear as yet to be liable to attack by in- 

 sects, although several suffer from fungi. The influences of 

 the thistle-rust on the plants which it infects should now 

 be watched. It will cause its hosts, many of which have 

 appeared up to this date to flourish remarkably under its 

 companionship, to wither as if burned. Look for the fungus 

 on the under side of the leaves of any thistles which have 

 turned yellow. 



The development of " smuts " in corn crops is a matter for 

 August rather than July, but in forward districts may be 

 seen this month. We shall have a note as to mode of infec- 

 tion in our next number. 



The Sundews (Drosera) flower this month. All are insecti- 

 vorous or carnivorous, deriving their nourishment from cap- 

 tured insects. There are three British species. 



D. rotundifolia is the commonest. It has rounded (orbicular) 

 leaves. D. intermedia has oblong (spatulate) leaves ; it is 

 widely distributed, but is much less common than the round- 

 leaved one. The remaining species, D. anglica, has obovate- 

 lanceolate leaves. It is rather rare in the bogs of Great 

 Britain, but is common in Ireland. 



In all sundews the surface of the leaves is covered with 

 reddish-purple " hairs" or tentacles, bearing a sticky secre- 



