Shoet Notes and Queries. 



169 



'P-ECJJ'LiKR FoiLM OT? Endymion (Agraphis) nutans. — The ordinary form 

 of this plant with us, has the flowering stem furnished below each flower, 

 with two bracts, having the same insertion as the pedicel. Before the 

 flowers open, these bracts are very short, in fact they do not exceed the 

 length of the bud, and afterwards become coloured and somewhat longer, 

 but never, so far as my experience goes, do they exceed one inch in length, 

 seldom f of an inch. In " Nees ab Esenbeck's Icones Genera Plantarum,^^ 

 the bracts are figured as not exceeding the length of the pedicel, about | 

 to I of an inch on the lowest flower. In the specimen brought by Mr. 

 Jno. Armitage to the Huddersfield Naturalists' Society (see p. 171), the 

 flowers were only in bud : but the bracts had already attained a length of 

 nearly 3 inches on the lowest flower, and from 1| to 2 inches on the 

 others, all reaching higher than the' uppermost bud on the spike ; they are 

 of a bright green colour : the outer one, clasping the stem slightly at its 

 insertion, is nearly f of an inch wide, and gradually tapering ; the pedicel 

 springs from the centre of the base of this bract, and the inner bract 

 alongside the pedicel is somewhat shorter than the outer one, and has its 

 internal faces closely applied to each other, so that it seems only half the 

 width it is in reality. I am informed by Mr. R. Jessop, who first found 

 this plant growing plentifully in a wood near Mirfield, and who has 

 watched it for some years, that when the flowers are fully opened, the 

 bracts, still remaining green, sometimes reach a length of more than 4 

 inches, and hang down on all sides. I should be glad to know if a similar 

 form has been found elsewhere ; it grows in two locaHties near here. 



Huddersfield, 8th May, 1876. Chas. P. Hobkirk. 



On the grounds of J. Woodhead, Esq. , Sandal Common, the blackbird 

 {Turdus merula) took up its abode the first week in March, and built its 

 nest on an ivy wall, and brought up three young ones ; now that they are 

 flown, the old birds have commenced incubation a second time in the same 

 nest, which I consider of very rare occurrence. — Thomas Makson. 



Sandal, 13th May. 



Death of Me. Thomas Wilkhstson. — We deeply regret to have to 

 record the death of Mr. Thomas Wilkinson, the well-known Yorkshire 

 entomologist, which took X)lace on the 13th of April, at his residence in 

 Scarborough. Mr. Wilkinson (who was 58 years of age at the time of 

 his death) was best known as a micro-lepidopterist, and his collection of 

 this order of insects was one of the best in the country. He did not, 

 however, neglect the macro-lepidoptera, and his beautiful bred specimens 

 of Cerura hicuspis adorn a number of our cabinets. Acronycta alni was 

 another of the "plums" he used to take. The last few years he had 

 given a good deal of attention to British coleoptera and trichoptera ; and 

 the science of entomology is indebted to him for the discovery of several 



