188 
WAYSIDE NOTES. 
We observe that Mr. Chas. B. Plowright, of King’s Lynn, the well- 
known micro-fungologist, proposes shortly to publish an account of the 
British Uredinese and Ustilagineae. The work, which will be published 
as soon as the requisite number of subscribers has been obtained, 
besides containing descriptions of the British species of these fungi, 
will also give a full account of their biology (as far as this is at present 
known), including the methods of observing the germination of their 
spores, and of their experimental culture. The publishers are Messrs. 
Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. 
Amongst the newly-elected Fellows of the Royal Society we are 
very glad to recognise two local scientists, viz., Professor Poynting, 
D.Sc., and Professor Lapwortli, LL.D., F.G-.S., both of the Mason 
College, Birmingham. The physical work of the former of these lies 
outside the sphere of criticism of the “ Midland Naturalist,” though, 
as secretary to the Birmingham Philosophical Society, his name is well 
known to many of our readers; Dr. Lapworth, however, is par 
excellence a field naturalist, and in the Midland district, as in North 
and South Scotland, has done much good work in unravelling vexed 
geological questions. 
Attention has been drawn in the Times and other papers to the 
serious defoliation of the oak in many districts through the ravages of 
a small blackish-green caterpillar. These ravages are particularly 
noticeable in the park at Sutton Coldfield, where large masses of the 
trees are as leafless as in mid-winter. Walking through the woods in 
the first week in June, the caterpillars were seen to hang literally in 
ropes from the trees, and an open umbrella was the only way in which 
progress could be made possible to ladies. 
Speaking of trees, probably most of our readers have noticed the 
extraordinary abundance this year of the flowers of the holly. In 
many bushes the leaves have been, at a few yards distance, completely 
lost sight of amongst the dense tufts of the whitish flowers. If the 
promise of the spring is fulfilled in the autumn, berried holly ought 
next Christmas to be a drug in the market, and, according to the 
popular superstition, the approaching winter ought to be one of 
marked severity. Possibly, though, the relative poverty of hawthorn 
flowers may correct the prevalence of those of the holly, and we may 
be favoured with an open winter after all. 
It is interesting to note that this year the flower known, 
sarcastically no doubt, as “ May,” did not put in an appearance till 
the end of that month, and was not in full beauty in the central 
Midlands till mid-June. In full accord with this, however, the writer 
of these notes picked his last Poet’s Narcissus, just expanded, on 
Midsummer day. 
We hope our readers will not forget the meeting of the Midland 
Union of Natural History Societies, at Northampton, on July 4tli and 
5th, but will take care to make it as successful in point of numbers 
as it seems certain to be in point of interest. We are requested to 
mention that the price of tickets for the Botanical and Geological 
Excursions will be 7s. 6d. each; not 8s. 6d as stated last month. 
