214 
NATURE NOTES 
This year we have had, I think, more than the usual number of swifts. 
Swallows and martins seemed scarce early in the season ; but they evidently had 
a fairly successful nesting, as they have both been very numerous lately. 
32, IVootl Lane, Charles S. Parsons. 
Highgate, N. 
569. Swarming of Ants. — The writer of Nature Notes Astronomical 
Notes perpetuates a common fallacy in his letter under this heading on p. 196, 
inasmuch as the so-called “ swarming” of ants is not analogous to that of bees. 
The latter is a true emigration ; the former is not. When the inhabitants of 
a hive increase to such an extent that they begin to be overcrowded, a number 
of them, accompanied by the old (or a young) queen, go off to seek a suitable 
place in which to establish a fresh nest — the hive being merely an artificial nest — 
and this is called “swarming,” which phenomenon takes place sometimes for 
other reasons, but this is the usual one. In the case of ants, on the other hand, 
the so-called “swarming” is merely the issuing forth of the males and females, 
which alone are winged, for the marriage flight. None of the worker ants take 
part in this, and it is in no sense an emigration, although many workers may 
be seen round and about the entrances to the nest, probably because they are 
unable to get in while the living stream pours forth. Numbers of ant-eating 
birds and other creatures are attracted to the spot, and very few of the new-born 
myriads can ever survive to perpetuate their species. It is not deflnitely known, 
I believe, how new colonies are founded, but it seems most likely that, as with 
wasps, the queen does all the preliminary work, and rears the first few workers 
without assistance. C. Nicholson, B.E.N.A. 
570. “Journalistic Hypocrisy.”— As a botanist, gardener, and reader 
of The Country-Side, I cannot allow the statements quoted under this heading 
on page 187 to pass without notice. The advertisement of British Orchids 
appeared only otue, so far as I can trace, and included the following species : 
Listera cordata and L. ovala,* Epifactis palustris,* Habenaria bifolia' and 
H. viridis,* Aceras anthropophora,* Gymnadenia conopsea. Orchis morio * and 
O. pyramidalts,* Ophrys aranifera, O. muscifera and O. api/era.’ Now all 
these, except O. aranifera and perhaps L. cordata may be called common, 
although some are not generally distributed. The statement that “ not a single 
British [orchid?] will live in an ordinary garden” is sheer nonsense, because 
•with care, every one of the above species and most of the others can be cultivated 
in almost any garden that is subject to a reasonable climate, and is not in or near 
a large town. I may say that in addition to those marked with an asterisk, 
I have in my garden here Spiranthes autumnalis. Orchis maculata, O. latifolia 
0 . mascula, Cephalanthera grandijlora and Goodyera repens, some of which have 
not yet flowered, but probably will next year, and the others have flowered for 
several years in succession, as did also Ophrys muscifera, H. conopsea and 
Malaxis paludosa, but I no longer have these three species. With the concluding 
sentences quoted I am, however, in perfect accord, and more especially that 
relating to the “advertising prowler”; for when pecuniary considerations are 
allied to the collection of natural objects, the extermination of the latter is 
immediately within sight, and the sooner the trade is overhauled and controlled, 
or abolished, the better. C. N1CHOI.SON, B.E.N.A. 
571. Scottish Mountain Trees. — The appended list is the outcome 
of observations made chiefly in the Braemar district, and may be of value as 
giving the species of forest trees found growing at an elevation of 1,100 feet 
and upwards above sea-level. This height is named, not because any .scientific 
importance attaches to it, but because it covers the village of Braemar (alt. l,lOO 
feet), which is taken as a base-level, and al-o Tomintoul, Banffshire (alt. 1,160) 
where some observations were made for me by Miss J. G. Watt. 
The two places above-named are the most elevated villages in the great mass 
of hill country known as the Cairngorm mountains, forming the north-east 
termination of the Grampians. Around the far-circling flanks of the Cairngorms, 
both on the Dee and the Spey watersheds, is to be seen the finest wild forest 
scenery in the country, in respect both of extent and of natural features. From 
some points of view on Speyside (Boal-of-Garten and Aviemore, for instance), 
the prospect is a grand and memorable one. The River Spey is at our feet ; 
