48 
TJie Scottish Naturalist. 
The second diagi-am illustrates the modes in which complex, as well as simple, 
hybrids can be built up, till, as Wichura showed, as many as six true species 
may be represented in certain artificial hybrids. The third illustrates very 
clearly the relationship of the Tribes and Species of Willows to one another 
and their capacities for hybridisation. The thanks of British botanists are due 
to Dr. White for the service he has rendered by a monograph that will un- 
questionably take a high rank among such works, and will greatly lessen the 
difficulties of all students of Willows. 
The Gardener's Chronicle (4th Oct., 1890, p. 288) mentions a tulip tree 
growing in Kilgraston grounds, Perthsliire, which was planted 180 years ago. 
It measures 60 feet in height, the stem is bare to about 12 feet, and the spread 
of the branches is 30 feet. At Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, two tulip 
trees were recorded in 1830 as 86 years old and 60 feet in height. 
The British foxglove is said to have established itself on the slopes of 
Stringer's Creek Valley, near Walhalla, Victoria. All along the banks it was 
.conspicuous this season by its purple flowers. 
At the first meeting this session of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, Dr. W. 
'Craig exhibited a specimen of the beefsteak fungus, Fisiulina hepatica, which 
was found growing on a Spanish chestnut in his garden in Edinburgh. This 
is the first instance on record of its being found gi owing on this tree in Scot 
land. 
Under the heading of an " Extraordinary Flight of Leaves," Mr. James 
Shaw writes to Nature (Oct. 30, p. 637) describing a very singular occurrence 
witnessed at Dalgouar Farm, Dumfries-shire, in Oct., 1889. This flight was 
at first mistaken for a flock of birds, but as the objects fell to the earth they 
were found to be oak leaves. The air was thick with them, and they de- 
scended in an almost vertical direction. The effect seen in the sunshine was 
beautiful. The wind was from the south, and gentle with showers of rain. 
After the fall was over the leaves were found to cover a tract on the hill about 
a mile wide and two miles long. The leaves were entirely those of the oak, 
but there are no oak trees growing in clumps within eight miles of the scene. 
We are glad to note the great and praiseworthy activity prevailing among 
the Scottish Faunists. In this Number it is our pleasing duty to review the 
latest addition to Mr David Douglas's fine series — ' ' The Birds of lona and Mull. " 
Now there lies before us the prospectus of what promises to be a singularly 
acceptable volume of this same series, devoted to the "Vertebrate Fauna of 
the Orkneys," by Messrs. Buckley and Harvie-Brown. 
