WAYSIDE NOTE.-REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
295 
fidelity and exquisite finish peculiar to the author. Beside these, 
there are fifty-six pages of letterpress, in which w T e have full and 
graphic descriptions of each plant, together with those additional 
familiar notes that are frequently so helpful in difficult and critical 
groups. The part is one of the ablest and most chastely illustrated 
portions of the author’s great work. We look forward with interest to 
the publication of Part XII., in which we are promised a full treatment 
of the genera Orthotrichum and Schistostega, the former being pro¬ 
bably one of the least understood groups of our British mosses. —J.E.B. 
(i.olansiiif Bote. 
Wasps in 1888.—Doubtless most of us have noticed that the past 
season has been very remarkably free from wasps (the writer has not 
seen or even heard of a single wasp’s nest being found in the Midlands). 
But during the past few weeks of bright sunshine (October) many 
queen wasps have made their appearance, as though the cold wet 
season had prevented their establishing nests in the usual way at the 
usual period. We presume that those queens which will escape 
annihilation this autumn will appear again next year to propagate the 
species, provided the weather is suitable. W. S. G. 
Ihporfs of Societies. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY. —Biological Section. —October 9th, 1888, Mr. R. W. Chase 
in the chair. The following were exhibited by Mr. W. B. Grove, B.A.:— 
Fungi collected during the fungus foray in Sutton Park, including 
Agaricus terreus , Ag. personatus. Cortinarius pholideus, C. delibutus, < . 
erythrinus, llygropliorus hypothejus, Mitrula paludosa, Corticium sangui- 
neum, all new to Sutton Park or district; for Miss Gingell, Cantharellus 
cibarius, Craterellus cornucopioides, Agaricus ceruginosus, and other fungi 
from Durslev, Gloucestershire ; by Mr. Edmunds, Peziza aurantia ; by 
Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., for Mr. Jones, of Sutton Coldfield, Blatta 
Lapponica. Mr. W. P. Marshall read his paper on “ Norway Plants,” 
recently collected by himself and Mr. C. Pumphrey, in which he gave 
an interesting account of the voyage out to the North Cape, the various 
places visited en route, and a vivid description of the glorious pheno¬ 
menon of the midnight sun. The paper was illustrated with 150 
specimens of plants, collected at the various stopping places, and two 
excellent maps, one of the West Coast of Norway from Bergen to the 
North Cape, and the other of the Arctic Circle. On the latter was 
traced the line of lowest mean temperature, showing how this line 
was displaced 600 miles north of the normal position at the North 
Cape by the influence of the Gulf Stream. —Geological Section.— 
October 16tli, Mr. T. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., in the chair. In 
response to an invitation from the Council to the members of the Yesey 
Club (Sutton) to attend this, the opening meeting of the Section, 
several members of that Club were present. After a cordial welcome 
had been given to the visitors by the Chairman, the following were 
exhibited :—Mr. W. B. Grove, Ag. mastoidens, Ag. clavipes, and llygro- 
pliorus puuiceus, from Dawlish ; Russula virescens, R. nigricans, Ag. 
spadiceus, from Umberslade ; Mr. F. Enock, Specimens of Puparia of 
the Hessian Fly ( Cecidomyia destructor), in situ, in wheat stubble, from 
