2i) 
LETTER TO THE EDITOR. 
Destruction of Wild Roses. 
The other day 1 was driving through Selborne, and just after 
passing the entrance to the lane specially mentioned by Gilbert 
White, I saw in the distance two men laden with what appeared 
to be bundles of faggots. I mentally put them down as wood- 
men, and thought how they added a touch of picturesqueness 
to the scene. On their nearer approach, however, I saw to my 
disgust that they were carrying not faggots but large bundles 
of briar-roses which they had rooted up wholesale out of the 
hedges. I have long been pained by the knowledge that this 
sort of destruction is carried on during the autumn and winter 
in country districts, but surely it is doubly distressing that in 
Gilbert White’s own village the hedges should be robbed of 
one of their greatest charms by these marauders. As the roses 
are grubbed up by the roots, the mischief done in each case is 
irreparable. Can nothing be done to stop it ? 
RopUy, Hants. Marie S. Hagen. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
461. A Bittern. — It may interest the readers of Nature Notes to know 
that I twice put up a Bittern on an isolated pond in the neighbourhood of Godal- 
niing. I was able to approach within a few feet of it before it flew away. 
On the same pond was a large company of tufted ducks ; also I noticed several 
hooded crows, which I believe to be rather rare so far south as this. 
Godaiming. Marjorie Lee. 
462. Bird Striking a Tree. — Whilst covert -shooting last week, a cock 
pheasant, far in advance of the beaters, when flying out of the covert, struck and 
broke his wing against the trunk of a large tree, knocking out a bunch of feathers 
and falling to the ground. The trees are not planted closely, and the foliage is 
deciduous. I mention the circumstance because my friends and I remarked 
upon the extreme rarity of the occurrence. 
Shra-duky, January 14 , 1907 . C. 
463. Alien Plants. — Adjoining Grangemouth Docks, on the Firth of 
Forth, on a piece of waste ground on which ballast is habitually discharged from 
vessels, the following plants were, in the course of a few years, found by the late 
Colonel Stirling and Sir. Robert Kidston ; Sisymbrium pannonicum, Saponaria 
vaccaria, Potentilla Norviegica, Achillea iiobilis. Beta vulgaris, Medicago falcala, 
Erigeron Canadense, Linaria repens, Rumex marittmus, Epilobium roseum. 
Reseda lutea, Senebiera didyma, Polycarpon letraphylium, Medicago maculata, 
Xanthium spinosum, Linaria Elatina, Neslia paniculala. Nasturtium sylveslre, 
.Sisymbrium Sophia, Erisymttm cheiranthoides, Lepidium ruderale, Stellaria 
aquatica, Sikne gallica var. anglica, Linum usitalissimum, Medicago saliva. 
Trifolium maritimum, Carttm Carui, Artemisia campeslris, Crepis biennis, 
.Mercurialis annua, Alopecurus agrestis, Polypogon monspeliensis ; truly a strange 
assemblage of plants. A number of these are foreign species, and all are alien to 
the local flora as properly understood. Grangemouth is much frequented by 
ships from Norwegian, Baltic, German, and Dutch ports. 
In studying the geology of the seashore also, one has to be on one’s guard as 
to the influence of the ballast heap. The pebbles of the beach are, as a rule, 
derived either from the adjoining rocks in situ, or from the boulder clays or gravel 
beds of adjacent drift deposits. Sometimes a series of pebbles may be found 
whose origin is a puzzle, flints on a granite coast many hundred miles from the 
nearest chalk-bed, or viceversd, or sometimes stones which have no counterpart in 
