Field Notes. 



355 



number of carefully-drawn diagrams. From the notes we 

 g-ather that Psychoda in all stages of growth abounds through- 

 out the year at the Leeds Sewage Works. ' It obtains its food 

 from heaps of coke, over which crude sewage is sprayed during 

 the purifying process. The life which flourishes on the coke- 

 heaps, and especially the bacterial life, effects the reduction of the 

 sewage to a harmless liquid. Algae, among which Stigeoclonmm 

 teniie is conspicuous, find here congenial conditions, and supply, 

 nutriment to insects of more than one kind. Besides Psychoda, 

 a Chirofwmiis and a beetle [Platystethiis) occur. A Scolopendra, 

 mites, and Nais have also been observed on the coke-heaps. 

 .... The fly is small and of grey colour. The wings are 

 larger than the body, which the}' completely cover, and slope 

 when at rest. Both body and wings are abundantly covered 

 with grey hairs, which give the fly at first sight the appearance 

 of a small moth, hence the name Psychoda.' . 



» ^ 



BOTANY, 



Riccia sorocarpa Bischoff in Derbyshire. — I collected 

 this rare hepatic in Cave Dale, Castleton, Derbyshire, September 

 1904. I only know of one other station in the county for it 

 (Miller's Dale). \ specimen has been deposited in the Man- 

 chester Museum. — Wm. Hy. Pearson. 



Malaxis Paludosa in the North Riding" of Yorkshire 



On 2nd August of this year I was fortunate enough to find some 

 plants of this interesting species on the slopes of Noon Hill, 

 about miles south-west of the High Force in Teesdale, on 

 the Yorkshire side of the Tees (Vice-county 65). A little patch 

 of Sphaginim moss, kept alive by a slight trickle among the 

 heather which eventually falls into Skyer Beck, supported about 

 a dozen plants, the largest about one inch high and with five 

 flowers on the spike. Though I spent some little time searching 

 on various likely places both above and below the spot, I did 

 not succeed in finding any more. I cannot find any record of 

 this species having been found in the North Riding since it was 

 recorded by my great-grandfather, James Backhouse, as having 

 been found by a miner named John Binks; who was frequently 

 his companion on his botanical excursions in Teesdale (see 

 'North Yorkshire,' 2nd ed., p. 378). This find apparently 

 occurred about 1850, and the description of the spot at which it 

 was found would agree exactly with the locality in which I 

 found it, and must at any rate have been within a few miles. — 

 Wilfrid B. Alexander, York, 5th November 1905. 



1905 December i. 



