SELBORNIA N A . 
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Cottage, Southampton, sends us a strong appeal on the same subject, and recom- 
mends that leaflets on bird-wearing should be distributed to ladies at the church 
doors 1 We have received from Miss Hannah Simpson, Holme House, Southport, 
some excellent letters on this matter, which we would gladly print if space 
allowed. Several other correspondents have dealt with the same subject. We 
are glad to announce that leaflets such as are asked for are now being prepared by 
Mr. G. A. Musgrave, F.Z.S., one of the Society’s trustees, and others, and will 
soon be issued at cost price. Meanwhile we may mention a very admirable leaflet 
on the “ Destruction of Ornamental-plumaged Birds,” by Mrs. I’hillips, president 
of the Tunbridge Wells S.P.C.A. (procurable from the authoress at Lancaster 
Lodge, Porchester Gate, W.), and a series of “Chelmsford Leaflets,” published 
by A. B. Harrison & Co., 9, Goswell Road, E.C. Some of these are specially 
intended for distribution by members of the Selborne Society. 
The Gfreat Skua Gull. — We have much pleasure in inserting the follow- 
ing paragraph on this subject. We heartily congratulate Mrs. Edmondston, Mr. 
Scott and the Zoological Society. It would be impossible for the rewards at the 
disposition of the Society to be better distributed than to such self-constituted 
guardians of our British birds : — -“ At the monthly general meeting of the 
Zoological Society, held on March 19th at the Society’s House in Planover 
Square, Lord Arthur Russell in the chair, it was announced that, in recognition 
of the effective protection accorded for sixty years to the Great Skua {Sterco- 
rariits catarrhactes) at two of its three British breeding stations, namely, in the 
Island of Uist by the late Dr. Laurence Edmondston and other members of the 
same family, and in the Island of Foula by the late Dr. Scott, of Melby, and 
his son, Mr. Robert Scott, the silver medal of the Society has been awarded to 
Mrs. Edmondston, of Buness House, as representative of that family, and to Mr. 
Robert Scott, of Melby, and that the medals would be delivered to the medal- 
lists or their representatives after the close of the anniversary meeting on April 
the 29th next.” 
[The foregoing was sent to press last month, but unfortunately omitted by 
accident]. 
“ Distribution of Rare Plants ” and “ Field Botany.” — With the 
editor’s permission, I should like to make a few remarks on the Rev. G. Ilenslow’s 
suggestive paper, and on that of Bishop Mitchinson. 
In one case I can to some extent answer Mr. Henslow’s query, i.e., as to 
Ononis repens L., var. liorrida. Some years ago I observed this plant for several 
years at Yarmouth North Denes. It grows there in great abundance, not usually 
wetted by the salt spray, but certainly so in storms ; it grows associated with such 
species as Aira ( Corynephorus ) canescens, Psamma ( Ammophila ) baltica , Galium 
ventm, var. littoraie , iSrY. There the spines were not produced until the plant 
was three years old from the seed 1 I distributed a large number of plants through 
the Botanical Exchange Club. From these same specimens I sowed seed in my 
garden in soil composed of half ordinary garden soil and half Redhillsand. Three 
years after these plants commenced to form spines, and the only difference observ- 
able between them and the wild specimens was that the garden plants were slightly 
greener, and less robust ; but this, of course, may have been from being seedlings. 
I preserved a series in flower and fruit for distribution, and I hope to do so again 
at the end of another three years. Professor Henslow perhaps has not observed 
Mr. Fryer’s interesting series of papers on the Fen Potamogetons that have 
appeared in the Journal of Botany , where the writer has shown the remarkable 
differences of the species as to these “ Land -forms,” differences so complete in 
such closely allied plants as lucens, L. and P. Zizii y Roth., as to be extremely 
suggestive of further experiments. I have gathered with Mr. Fryer’s specimens of 
a Potamogeton from under hay made in a dried-up ditch, but no fruit was pro- 
duced. 
Turning to Bishop Mitchinson’s paper, he will be glad to hear that Lychnis 
alpina is in good abundance still on the Little Culrannock ; Mulgedium can he 
looked at, but requires a very steady head and eye to get : but it is still there. 
Oxytropis campcstris is also not gone, and has now been found in Perthshire in fair 
quantity. Potcntilla rupestris has been found by the Rev. A. Ley in Radnor- 
