367 



NO TE — FUNGI. 



Large Fairy Rings at Fillingham Castle.— In compliance with 

 Mr. Grassland's suggestion that, in recording- 'fairy rings,' the soil and 

 position, etc., where they are met with, should also be noted, I write to say 

 that the land behind the castle, where the giant ' fairy rings ' occur, 

 appeared to me to be of a rough, poor nature ; but to make sure I wrote to 

 Mrs. Portman-Daltbn, who takes an interest in such matters and is a good 

 observer, and asked her about it. In reply she writes : — ' My husband says 

 that there is no sand or gravel in the soil in the park here. It is red earth 

 on limestone, and very near the rock. YYe have ploughed up so much of the 

 park, as the grass was so tussocky and harsh nothing would eat it. Where 

 you saw the ' fairy rings ' it is always mown for hay.' 



To this I can only add that Fillingham Castle stands on the verge of the 

 Oolite cliff in Lincolnshire, about 200 feet above sea level, overlooking' 

 the Liassic plains below, and that behind the castle, to the east, the park is 

 practically level ; while the land there, which is open and dry, is full of the 

 dwarf plume-thistle — Cnicits acaulis, with the devil's-bit scabious, Scabiosa 

 succisa, and strong tufts of coarse, wiry grass. 



On my own pasture fields at Gainsborough, which lie on the rich Keuper 

 Marls, ' fairy rings ' are numerous ; but they are all of the usual moderate 

 size, and the circle of the larger ones is seldom complete. 



I have never noticed any other agarics, either inside the rings or grow- 

 ing - with Marasmius oreades: a state of things which, so far, tends to show 

 that the mycelium of this fungus does better in a poor than in a rich soil. — 

 F. M. Bi'RTOX, Highfield, Gainsborough, 16th November 1900. 



NOTE— MARINE MOLLUSCA. 



Ac m sea testudinalis on the Yorkshire Coast.— In 1852 a friend 

 from Forfarshire sent me a few shells of this pretty Limpet ; their beautiful 

 form and markings interested me greatlv, and in 1887, when the programme 

 of the visit of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union to Saltburn was distributed, 

 I noticed one item of special interest to me — ' Aoncea testudinalis, fine.' 

 I had not heard then of its southward rambles, so decided to go to the 

 excursion and look for it. As soon as the tide was run out I spent all the 

 afternoon on the rocks and was fortunate in finding- two very fine and much 

 larger specimens than those I had from Scotland. In September of the 

 same year I spent a day at Runs wick and got four g-ood shells. In 1888 

 I searched Whitby Scar and found three moderate specimens. In 1896, 

 being at Sandsend for a few days, I had a long search, and was successful 

 in finding what appeared to be the headquarters of the species for the 

 district. The shells were here much larger than an}- I had seen, but 

 wretched specimens — all the outer coat of enamel and markings corroded 

 and eaten away; no one without an 'educated eye' could have picked them 

 out from the ordinary Limpet. The most singular thing was that the 

 common species was unaffected, except that it was in greater variety of 

 marbling and coloration than I have seen it elsewhere. The two species 

 lay together in the course of a verv shallow stream that issues from the 

 cliff above, and owing to the formation of the sear, the water, heavily 

 charged with a white sediment, flows over a considerable area and affects 

 the shells so differently. The site is the last to be uncovered and the first 

 to be covered at the ebb and flow of the tides, when the volume of water 

 will neutralise or absorb the powerful salt that dees so much damage in so 

 short a time. The people at Sandsend want a company promoter and a spa 

 .ill their own. Being anxious to connect all the available stations on the 

 coast 1 called at Staithes and Robin Hood's Hay, but the very primitive 

 character of the drainage schemes in force at each place makes it imperative 

 that one should choose a cool day with the wind from the sea, conditions of 

 Weather very unfavourable to successful search for Acma?a testudinalis. 

 Jno. Braim, Pickering, 29th October iqoo. 



1900 December 1. 



