THE YOUNG NATUBALIST. 



109 



Meliloti in the New t Forest seems to have been confined to a very limited 

 area, consisting, speaking roughly, of some of the rides in Park Hill, Denny 

 Lodge, Perry Wood, and Stubby Copse enclosures, and by the adjacent rail- 

 way. So far as I have been able to learn, these enclosures are all, compara- 

 tively speaking, modern ones, made in pursuance of the Deer Removal Act, 

 of 1861, and having of course taken some years to make. Trifolii no doubt 

 existed here when the Forest was in its original state, previous to the making 

 of these plantations, as it still does elsewhere in the Forest, if not here. For 

 the purpose of these plantations, the whole place underwent a thorough 

 system of drainage by deep gullies, the old swamps and shade being gradually 

 done away with, while the land being planted with young dwarf trees was 

 fully exposed to the sun. If Meliloti could have lingered on till these planta- 

 tions grew up to maturity we might perhaps have hoped to see it revert to its 

 original type. How long it took for the degeneration to develope itself is 

 not known, as the first of the recorded specimens was that of Mr. Ramsey 

 Cox taken in 1869, eighteen years after the formation of the railway. It 

 was not recorded for 1870, but after then it seems to have been taken more 

 and more freely until 1875, when it was common. For the next few years 

 I know of no record, and cannot say when it began to die out. Mr. Tate, of 

 Lyndhurst, writing in May, 1885, says, "'they have been very scarce the 

 last three or four seasons." In July, 1885, he writes, that he and two other 

 collectors had failed to take a single specimen. Mr. C, Gulliver, of Kamnor, 

 in July, 1887, writes, "for the last two or three years it has not been taken." 

 In August, 1887, he writes, " I have not taken any and I do not believe any 

 one else has, for I have seen a lot of collectors and asked them — I believe it 

 to be quite extinct in the Forest." When I took it last in 1875, the nearer 

 we got towards the railway the more was Meliloti mixed with Trifolii, until 

 at last, just by the railway itself, Trifolii was as common or commoner than 

 Meliloti : specimens also occurred which were intermediate between the two 

 forms. It would be interesting to know whether and to what extent Trifolii 

 still occurs there. 



In addition to the cause of degeneration suggested above, it is very 

 probable that — as suggested by Mr. Robson — it was helped by interbreeding, 

 as Meliloti was still more restricted in its locality by its habit of preferring 

 the rides themselves to the intermediate land. One fact remains to be 

 mentioned, and that is, that whether in the new Forest or with those speci- 

 mens recorded by Mr. Robson from Kent, by Mr. Jenner Weir from Tilgate 

 Forest or those more recently taken near Folkestone, no single instance is 

 recorded of Meliloti being taken except in those places where, or immediately 

 adjacent to which Trifolii occurs or has occurred. 



Hth April, 1888, 



