238 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT GORMIRE AND THIRKLEBY. 



For the Entomological Section its president, Mr. N. F. Dobree, 

 of Beverley, reported that the Lepidoptera seen at Gormire included 

 a very good pale variety oi Argynnis aglaia and Polyomtnatiis agestis\ 

 P. alsiis was also pretty certainly seen, though not captured ; 

 iMacroglossa stellatarum was in some quantity; Anthrocera filipendulce^ 

 Gnophos obscuf-ata, Afiaitis plagiata, Hydrocajupa fiyi/iphcealis, 

 Pyrausia purpuralis^ Eupithecia piilcheilata, Leuca7iia impura, and 

 L. pallens were also taken. Great expectations were entertained on 

 seeing the ground that Aliana expoliia would be found, but the 

 drought appeared to have burnt up its food-plant. A number of 

 beetles were also found. 



The president of the Botanical Section (Dr. F. Arnold Lees, of 

 Heckmondwike) presented a brief report on the work done during 

 the day. Upwards of 100 flowering plants were noticed in bloom, 

 but the great heat militated alike against comfort and exertion ; 

 whilst the brief time allowed for the sectional meeting (held under 

 the trees in the park), together with the absence of the phanerogamic 

 secretary, combined to frustrate a systematic roll-call of all the 

 common as well as notable species observed. Most of the species 

 named in the circular from stations long known, and already recorded 

 in the pages of ' North Yorkshire,' were gathered by one or other of 

 the botanists, ably guided to their special localities by Mr. William 

 Foggitt, through whom, too, was reported the only new vice-county 

 record for North-east Yorkshire which the meeting brought forth. 

 The plant was Potent ilia argentea L., gathered on the new red sand- 

 stone at Breckenbrough, east of the Wiske stream (the dividing line 

 between vice-counties 62 and 65), and some three miles west of 

 Thirsk. Next to this the most important observation made w^as that 

 of the singular hair-clothed Veronica parniularia Tur. & Poit., from a 

 pool near Gormire ; and, singular to say, reported as found growing 

 intermixed with the perfectly glabrous 'type' — V. sciitellata — a fact 

 that makes it difficult to account adequately for the very distinct 

 aberration it presents, upon any theory of special conditions due to 

 local environment ; and, seeing that its special characters have 

 remained constant under cultivation, lends probabihty to suggested 

 specific distinctness. The ' Gormire bramble,' recorded in ' North 

 Yorkshire' under the name of Rubus 7iitidus ( = R. lindleianus Lees), 

 was observed to be very abundant on the sandy stony soil of the 

 slopes above the lake, and noted to have a peculiar facies, due to its 

 neat habit of growth, small neat quinate leaflets, and racemose hairy 

 panicle of flowers, with patent sepals and narrow lilac-gray petals. 

 It certainly belongs to the rlianinifolius group as defined by Hooker 

 in Student's Flora (3) ; but it presents features linking it to Rubus 



Naturalist, 



