28 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
lateral ¥)tstoni Botes. 
A Fungus Foray.— If Mr. Bagnall will refer to former volumes of 
the “ Midland Naturalist ” he will find Ag. ditopus recorded in the 
volume for 1S8B, pp. 264, 272, and An. furfuraceus in the volume for 
3 882, p. 184.—W.B. G. 
Anker Flora. —About the middle of last month (November), in 
company with Mr. E. De Hamel, of Tamworth, I had a short 
botanical walk over Warwickshire Moors, Rye Hills or Royals, by 
Rimington Hall, and so back to Tamworth. Much of the ground we 
went over is moorish pasture land, drained by the River Anker, and 
numerous tributary streams. The season was too late for me to form 
a true estimate of the floral riches of the district, but from what I was 
able to identify I should think the flora of this river basin would be 
found to be both rich and varied if the ground were well worked 
earlier in the season. During our walk I took notes of all that could 
be still recognised, and found when I reached home that we had 
observed over 126 species, representing 88 genera and 38 natural orders 
of flowering plants, and several very local mosses. Among the plants 
recorded two are new as records for the Tame basin, viz.: (Enanthe 
ftuviatilis and Potamogeton densns , and the following are species that I 
consider noteworthy :—Ranunculus circinnatns, R. fluitans, Callitriclie 
obtusangula, C. hamulata, Helosciadium inundatum, (Enantliefluviatilis, 
Tanacetum vulgare, Veronica polita, V. Anagallis, Lemna gibba, L. 
trisulca, Acorus calamus, Potamogeton serratus, P. densus, Zannichellia 
palustris, Sagittaria sagittifolia, Butomus umbellatus, Agrostis nigra, 
Phragmites communis, G-lyceria aquatica, Chara fragilis. The more 
noteworthy mosses are :—Tortula latifolia, Fontinalis antipyretica, 
Leskea polycarpa, Scleropodium cfespitosum.—J. E. Bagnall. 
Only a dead Spider.— I fancy I hear many say—“ Well, what is 
there extraordinary in a dead spider; throw it away, the nasty horrid 
thing ; I hate all spiders.” But I am glad to say that this particular 
dead spider, and the lesson learned from it, has not been thrown 
away upon one human being at any rate, and I write these few lines 
hoping that others may have their hearts touched and rebuked. A 
short time ago I had occasion to visit a grocer’s shop, when one of the 
assistants (knowing my love for all creeping things) said—“Oh, Mr. 
-, we have got a great big dead spider for you which we found 
some time ago at the bottom of a tea chest which had just been 
emptied.” On examining the specimen, I found it to measure over 
four inches across its legs, the head or cephalo-thorax being half an 
inch long, the abdomen shrivelled up, but grasped tightly within its 
jaws was a large round and flat cocoon of eggs, one inch diameter. 
This latter fact at once gave me an idea as to what family it belonged, 
viz., the Lycosidse, of which we have in Great Britain between thirty 
or forty representatives, all of which are in the habit of carrying about 
with them their cocoon of eggs, grasping it firmly with their powerful 
jaws, besides having a silken cord attached to it from their spinners. 
On a warm, sunny day in June I have often seen thirty or forty 
specimens of Lycosa agretica, males and females, basking in the sun 
on an old box, tin pot, or broken piece of pottery lying about near a 
hedge, at the approach of anyone running and hiding away underneath 
stones and among the dry herbage at the bottom of the hedge, waiting 
until all danger is past. But if the intruder on their peace attempts 
their capture, they do, indeed, run for their lives,- dodging in and 
