CURIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH A SLUG. 9 
it owes so much of its power. A little sketch just issued of the 
Flora of Maidstone contains this warning : “ If the sale of the 
roots of the Primrose is carried on to the extent it is now, in 
about twenty years it will have become comparatively scarce.” 
The literary style is open to criticism, but the meaning of the 
writer is only too plain. Not only Primrose Leaguers, but 
church decorators, are doing their best to banish the Primrose 
from our woods and hedge-rows. In each case ladies are the 
chief offenders — a fact which, however sad, ceases to be sur- 
prising, when we see how deaf many of them are to the en- 
treaties of those who beg them to spare the little birds, sacrificed 
by thousands to their insane desire for personal decoration, how- 
ever inappropriate and at whatever cost. 
It may be well to add a note of caution to those who find 
the Limestone Polypody in a new and isolated locality. This 
pretty fern is in many districts extremely rare, and collectors 
should abstain from seizing the first specimens found until they 
have assured themselves of the existence of others. More than 
twenty years ago, a friend, a true Selbornian in spirit, found 
two specimens of Limestone Polypody in a wood near High 
Wycombe. Not doubting but that there were plenty more, 
he collected them ; but a most careful and diligent search on 
numerous after occasions failed to detect another example. 
The existence of the fern as a Buckinghamshire plant rests 
upon the evidence of the two specimens still preserved in his 
herbarium. 
CURIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH A SLUG. 
By Miss A. M. BUCKTON. 
|ATE one evening last summer, walking up and down 
I a drive covered by larches and firs, I noticed a fine 
l( specimen of Avion atev (or land-sole, as some call him) 
come forth from a crevice among the stones and pro- 
ceed to cross the road. Wishing to test the focus of the small 
eyes at the end of the black tentacles, and discover the distance 
at which they could appreciate objects, I drew my forefinger, 
that looked white and ghost-like in the dusk, along the road 
about half an inch before him. His attention was immediately 
attracted, and he began following my movements implicitly 
along the fantastic path I traced for about the space of two 
feet. 
At length I paused and allowed him to overtake me. The 
cold slimy touch sent an involuntary shiver up my arm, but not 
to be daunted in the cause of science, I restrained the impulse 
