2 I 8 
NATURE NOTES 
Protective Colouration in a Spider. — I was much interested in Prof. 
Boulger’s note on this subject (p. 198 ante), and would like to mention that 
McCook (a distinguished arachnologist) does not look upon the colouration of 
Mtsnmena valia as “ merely colour variation,” but as alluring colouration, and, 
in addition, as a true instance of protective resemblance. If this species of spider 
be put into the centre of a Coreopsis flower (a usual habitat), the true meaning of 
its colouration becomes at once evident. I would also like to point out that 
Misttmena vatia and Thomisus citreus are not, as Prof. Boulger’s note would seem 
to suggest, one and the same species. The latter is of a creamy-white colour, and 
the contour of its abdomen closely resembles an unopened flower-bud ; another, 
and a very good instance of alluring colouration. 
J. W. Williams, M.R.C.S.(Eng.), F.L.S., &c. 
1 28, Mansfield Road, //. W. 
Abnormal Foxglove.— I am sending you some specimens of abnormal 
foxglove flowers sent to me from a cottage garden at Kingsdown, near Swindon, 
and also those of some campanulas (? C. medium) which grow near the foxglove. 
At p. 178 of Nature Notes, of September, 1900, Mr. E. A. Martin records the 
discovery of a foxglove, one of the flowers of which “ had opened out almost 
exactly like a hollyhock,” and suggests hybridisation with that plant ; but as 
you pointed out in a footnote, crossing is impossible, no doubt on the ground 
that hybrids are not produced from plants of different natural orders. 
In the frequent cases in which the corolla of Digitalis assumes a campanulate 
form, there has been for some time a tendency to attribute the variation to 
crossing, and in “ Tongues in Trees,” by the Rev. W. Tuckwell, Vicar of Stockton, 
Rugby, and late Fellow of New College, Oxford (Geo. Allen, 1891), I find at 
p. 88, the following statement: “At East Langton, near Market Ha-borough, 
foxgloves and Campanula medium have for years grown side by side. The two 
have hybridised, and the foxgloves terminate in campanulate blooms.” 
In the specimens I now send you, you will observe that the abnormal flowers 
have all the characters of Scroplmlariacie, and none of Campanulacece, and they 
are no doubt simply malformations ; but it is rather remarkable that these 
peculiar forms of Digitalis all seem to occur in gardens where other genera assort 
with them, and even allowing for the “ tendency of irregular flowers to become 
regular by an increase of their parts,” the reason of their particular form of 
aberration, which is of such frequent occurrence, seems rather obscure, and I 
should like to have your opinion upon it. 
Are not most of these variations due to an effort on the part of the plant to 
secure fertilisation ? According to Lubbock, Digitalis is exclusively fertilised by 
bumble bees. Can it be with the object of offering them easier access that the 
corolla assumes by duplication and quadruplication, the regular campanulate 
form ? 
Dulwich, September 21, 1901. M. J. T. 
[The specimens sent were far less abnormal or campanula-like than many we 
have seen, and certainly show no suggestion of hybridism, which is, as we have 
previously intimated, in this case a purely gratuitous and baseless supposition. 
A slight hypertrophy of the corolla suffices to render Digitalis nearly poly- 
symmetric. — E d. N.N.) 
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