299 



NOTE— FLOWERING PLANTS. 



Lincolnshire Aliens : Grimsby.— Among- some other plants received 

 from Grimsby (Div. 4), from Mr. A. Smith, I found : — 



Lepidium sativum. Chenopodium album, vars. 



Lepidium ruder t ale. incanum, viride, and viridesce?is~ . 



Lepidium Draba. Chenopodium vuVuaria. 



Chenopodium pseudo-botryoides. 'Foeniculum vulgare. 

 And a number of other aliens I have no books to name from. — E. Adrian 

 Woodruffk-Peacock, Cadney, Brigg, 14th August 1900. 



NO TE — FUNGI. 



Large Fairy Rings at Fillingham Castle, Lines. — All of us know 

 the 4 fairy rings ' so common in our meadows and grass lands, and many of 

 us have ventured to eat the fungus — Marasmhis oreades — which causes 

 them. 



On the 8th of August last, some of the largest ' fairy rings ' I ever saw, 

 or heard of, were pointed out to me in the grounds of Fillingham Castle r 

 about 10 miles north of Lincoln, on the cliff. 



This fungus owes its generic name, Marasmius, as the Rev. W. Fowler, 

 of Liversedge, tells me, to the power it has of shrinking with drought and 

 reviving again with moisture ; on which account, he says, ' it can be hung 

 up on a string in the kitchen, and used for flavouring at any time when 

 wanted.' 



I do not know whether the 'ring' I am speaking of was the largest of 

 those I saw, for there were several, apparently as big, around the place, 

 but the one I measured (by stepping) was 86 yards in diameter. The circle 

 was nearly round, only broken a little on one side by a path running through 

 the park. 



I shall be glad to hear if it is a common thing for ' fairy rings ' to attain 

 such a size as this. Perhaps some of your readers will throw light on it. 

 — F. M. Bi'RTON", Highfield, Gainsborough, 21st September 1900. 



NOTE MARINE MOLLUSCA. 



Acmasa testudinalis in Grace Darling's Collection. — It is not, I think, 

 well known that England's famous heroine, Grace Darling, was a eoncholo- 

 gist— a collector of marine shells, at any rate ; but recently, Mr. John E. 

 Robson, of Hartlepool — whose name by rights should foot this note — 

 informed me that the courageous girl's collection is extant and intact — in. 

 Newcastle, I believe — and that in it lies a specimen collected on the Fames 

 of that rarer of our two Limpets, Patella testudinalis, a gastropod that 

 has not as vet found a place in a much desiderated complete list of the 

 marine and freshwater shells of Northumberland with Durham. — F. Arnold 

 Lees, Leeds, 7th August 1900. 



In reference to this matter, our good friend Mr. Richard Howse. M.A.. 

 tlu- curator of the Museum at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Writes me that Grace 

 Darling's collection was bequeathed to the museum by her sister many 

 fears ago, and is arranged in the Central room, open to public inspection. 

 It includes about thirty specimens of this species. As these were collected 

 before Grace left the Longstone Lighthouse, they are undoubtedly the firs* 

 collected on the North-East Coast. The record has already been published, 

 as Mr. George Tate included it in a list of the Fame Islands Mollusca in 

 $59 (Berwicksh. Nat. Club Transactions), which was undoubtedly drawn 

 up from Grace Darling's collection. Mr. Howse has since that date round 

 the shell along the coast from Newbiggin to Hartlepool in 1SO5. and at 

 Staithes about the same date. Since then Mr. H. Crowther has found it near 

 Whitby, and Mr. Butterell at Flamborough. which now stands as the 

 southern limit of its range on our east coast. VY. DENISON RO£BUCK> 

 Leeds, 4th September 1900. 



1900 October i. 



