423 



NOTE ON JUNCUS ACUTUS L. 



F. ARNOLD LEES, M.R.C.S., Etc. 



Leeds. 



This East Coatham Rush is undoubtedly Juncus acutus 

 Linn., and must be reckoned a significant extension of its 

 East Coast Range in England. It has not yet turned up in 

 Scotia, if we except a doubtful report of it from the Kircud- 

 bright littoral — where it may well have occurred as an Alien ; 

 but there is an early record of it for the ' Wash ' marshes of 

 Lincolnshire in Thompson's ' Boston,' (1856), a likely area that 

 produced Statice reticulata and Althaea officinalis e'en tho' these 

 be ' gone ' now. It might be being too acute to say that it is 

 the J. maritimiis of * North Yorkshire,' p. 292, Ed. i. (1863), 

 and (unaltered phrase) ' amongst the sandhills in front of the 

 village of Coatham,' p. 338, Ed. 2, 1892 ; although it seems 

 strange that, if there, in the quantity Lee found it in 1905, the 

 bold, noticeable Rush escaped ' the seeing eye ' at the earlier 

 dates in ' classic ' ground of which particular mention is made 

 in ' North Yorkshire ' (Ed. i, p. 140, Ed. 2, p. 188-9). It is, 

 further, sorrowing to note how little up-to-date the 

 Second Edition of Mr. Baker's pioneer work was brought. 

 This is case 12 or 13 — a baker's dozen ! — in which a ver-species 

 has come to light to upset our reckonings. The other view to 

 take is to deem it a suspect, brought with ships' ballast sand, 

 if where it grew, between the rail-line and the front, shewed any 

 sign of having been a ' tip.' My own idea is that the seed was 

 washed there by the North Sea currents at some high tide in 

 years gone by ; in other words, a Native Waif ! a late comer 

 comparatively, and one of those hitherto too much overlooked 

 factors in Natural Change which reinforce the fiower-basket of 

 every wild garden (more or less, the shore-plots more) and com- 

 pensate for the equally natural losses of time and Elemental 

 circumstance. 







The Rev. J. Conway Walter sends us a note recording the nesting of a 

 partridge very close to a much frequented highway at Horncastle. Part- 

 ridges are occasionally erratic in this way. 



We have received part II. of a new journal, ' The Scientific Monthly.' 

 It has notes on ' The Shape of the Visible Universe,' ' Dyeing,' ' Geology ' 

 (very general), ' Electricity,' ' Beautiful diatoms,' and some shorter notes 

 of a Tit-Bits type. We cannot say what service the new venture will 

 perform, but time will tell. 



1-908 November i. 



