NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
223 
including forty goldfinches, was deposited at Frame Station for 
conveyance to London. Goldfinches are protected throughout 
the year in Somerset, and the station master, without waiting to 
argue the matter out with the police, or write to the papers, 
liberated all the birds. The catchers threatened an action for 
damages ; probably they were surprised to find themselves 
prosecuted, convicted, and fined £5 and costs, and to be recom- 
mended by the Bench to tell their brethren that the next case 
would be more severely dealt with.’’ 
Birds’ Nesting with a Camera. — -Students of Natural His- 
tory were entertained at the Working Men’s College on the 
evening of October 20, with a lecture delivered by Mr. A. J. 
Wallis on “ Birds’ Nesting with a Camera.” The naturalist 
photographer— for such is Mr. Wallis — dwelt upon the strange 
places chosen by many of our feathered friends for their homes, 
sometimes, he said, it was a furze bush, a hole in a tree, a 
disused chimney pot, and even a pair of old trousers in a field, 
as he had once witnessed. The lecturer regaled his audience 
with many anecdotes of the thrushes, the tits, and the robin, and 
some very good pictures were thrown upon the screen. 
Horticultural Exhibition. — The Board of Agriculture and 
Fisheries inform us that a Horticultural Exhibition will be held 
at Mannheim, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, from May to 
October, 1907. Exhibits from this country will be admitted to 
the fruit, vegetable, orchid and cactus shows. Applications for 
information should be addressed to the Office of the Exhibition, 
Friedrichsplatz, 14, Mannheim, Germany. A copy of the pro- 
visional programme can be seen at the offices of the Board, 4, 
Whitehall Place, S.W. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
443. Alien Plants. — Mr. C. Nicholson, of Hale End, Chingford, is 
much interested in casual or alien plants, and he would be glad of specimens. 
If Miss Ilagen would send him a plant or two of Rudbeckia Newmanni , and Mr. 
Cooper would do the same (or forward seeds) of Salvia verticillata for cultivation, 
Mr. Nicholson would gladly pay the postage. 
444. Alien Plants. — Erinus alpimis grows in quantities amongst the 
Roman ruins at Chesters-on-Tyne. I have often heard the legend that it came 
up spontaneously after the excavations thirty or forty years ago, and this is 
mentioned in Dr. Bruce’s “ Handbook to the Roman Wall”; but in conversa- 
tion on the spot with a gentleman interested both in archaeology and botany, he 
told me that a friend of his had confessed to having brought seed of this and of 
other Alpine and Italian plants from abroad, and to having sown them at Chesters 
and elsewhere. Erinus is very easily naturalised. I have often read with amaze- 
ment the passage quoted from Bentham and Hooker’s “ British Flora,” which 
says that “ Erinus alpimis is established as an escape from gardens on old walls, 
especially on the Roman wall, on the borders of Yorkshire and Lancashire. (The 
italics are mine.) The Roman wall is entirely in North Cumberland and South 
Northumberland, 25 miles from the nearest point of Yorkshire, and nearly 
40 from the nearest point of Lancashire-over-Sands. 
Newby Grange , Carlisle. 
E. Hodgson. 
