808 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
There are various illustrations of average merit, while the printing 
and paper are all that could be desired. We would suggest that if a 
second edition be reached, a good index should be added, as at present 
it is very difficult to find the place where any given animal is described. 
In conclusion, we heartily recommend this book, not to young people 
only, but to all who are as yet unacquainted with the wonders of the 
organised world. 
A. B. B. 
Mildness of the Season. —Laburnums bloomed in many places 
during October. On October 6th and 11th ripe strawberries were 
gathered out of doors in a garden near Maidstone, About the same 
time “ a magnificent lot of raspberries, quite in perfection.” were 
picked in the garden of Cornier Hall, Hemel Hempstead. Similar 
reports come from several other districts. At Hemingford, St. Ives, 
a second crop of raspberries was gathered on the 12th, “accompanied 
with the song of the thrush and the blackbird.” 
Burnt Earth for Alpine Plants.— Mr. Geo. Maw, F.L.S., has 
published an interesting note on this subject in the Gardener's Chronicle , 
October 16th. Plants which grow naturally in fissures only, such as 
many of the liard-foliaged Saxifrages, Androsaces, etc., are, it is well 
known, very difficult to maintain in health in gardens. It is with 
plants of this class that Mr. Maw has been experimenting for three or 
four years. He finds that when grown in pulverised fire-brick refuse 
(technically known as “ground sherds”), with a very slight admixture 
of peat and loam, they thrive admirably. Pulverised red brick pro¬ 
duced very similar results, but the preference is given to the fire brick. 
Plant Food. —Mr. Edmund Tonks, B.C.L., recently delivered an 
interesting and instructive lecture on this subject to an audience of 
practical gardeners in Birmingham, in the course of which he pointed 
out the value of artificial manures, and gave much useful information 
about them. The lecture has been printed, and may be obtained from 
Messrs. Cornish Brothers, Birmingham. The price is sixpence. 
Wasps. —A number of letters have appeared in the newspapers 
remarking on the almost entire absence of wasps this autumn in the 
Midland Counties. This agrees with our own experience, for we have 
seen only two or three at most. Various reasons have been assigned 
for their scarcity, the most feasible beiug the prevalence of cold, 
bitterly cold, east winds during April and early in May; and several 
successive wet days in May, which drowned or destroyed their nests. 
Up to the first week of May, queen wasps were very abundant. In 
some districts we learn that wasps have been as numerous as ever, 
and one writer (“ D. T. F.” in The Garden , Oct. 9th) savs that in East 
Anglia on Oct. 4tli he saw large quantities — “many thousands ” is his 
expression — swarming among the open flowers of ivy, although during 
the season he has destroyed “fifty nests and occupants.” 
