NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.-REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
2G9 
Arden on the 9th, 40-0° at Hodsock on the 29th, 42-1 at Strelley on the 
1st, and 43-7° at Loughborough on the 2nd. On the grass, 32*7° at 
Hodsock on the 29th, 37‘8° at Strelley, and 40-0° at Loughborough on 
the 1st. The past month is most remarkable for the unusually small 
amount of rainfall, the total values being, at Coston Rectory 0T1 of 
an inch, at Loughborough 0T4, at Hodsock 0 - 32, at Strelley 037, at 
Henley-in-Arden 0 55. The number of “ rainy days ” varied from 2 to 
G. An exceptional fall, 0 - 40 of an inch, took place at Henley-in-Arden 
on the 21st. The absence of thunder storms is noticeable. Sunshine 
was above the average. 
Wm. Berridge, F. R. Met. Soc. 
12, Victoria Street, Loughborough. 
flitted J§ is torn 'dotes. 
New British Fungi.— I was surprised to-day, on examining some 
fungi, collected at Sutton last March, to find that one of them was a 
species of Helmintliosporium, new to Great Britain. It resembles II. 
Hinido , Sacc. (Fung. Ital. 54), but differs in being nearly twice as 
large; the spores are about 400 p long, very dark, with about 60 septa. 
I propose to name it var. Anglicum. I have also to record the following 
fungi, not hitherto, I think, detected in Great Britain : rhoma ilicicola, 
P. lineolata, P. hysterella, and Septoria Teucrii, all from near Hampton- 
in-Arden.—W. B. Grove, B.A., July 28tli. 
Death’s Head Hawk Moth.— Two broods of caterpillars of the 
death’s head hawk moth (acheroritia atropos) have occurred here, the 
first I have met with during a residence of five-and-twenty years. 
One of these specimens was brought in by the vicar of Kingsbury, 
found by a labourer at the edge of a field of potatoes. The other 
three were taken feeding in a potato garden, close by the Tamwortli 
railway stations. I attribute this appearance to the unusually dry 
summer we have experienced.— Egbert de Hamel, Bole Hall, 
Tamwortli, August 15th, 1885. 
deports of Societies. 
BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL 
SOCIETY.— Geological Section, July 28tli.—Exhibits Mr. W. P. 
Marshall, M.I.C.E., geological specimens from America. Silicified 
wood, from Calistoga Petrified Forest, California, special piece showing 
fine concentric layers when magnified ; Sulphur deposits, Ac., from Hot 
Springs, Cloverdale, California, where sulphur vapour and steam issue 
from cracks in ground; weathered granite, from Yosemite Valley, 
California, spherical layers from domes, flat layers from vertical faces; 
granite sand, from Yosemite Valley, California, dust lying thick upon 
roads below granite cliffs; weathered sandstone, from Garden of the 
Gods, Colorado, red portion a little harder than white, forms flat caps; 
granite, Ac., from Rocky Maintains, Pike’s Peak, Colorado, partially 
disintegrated, and some deep red coloured granite, Ac., from Rocky 
Mountains, Toltee Gorge, Colorado ; striped sandstone from rocks, 
Kentucky ; sundry specimens from rocks at Great Salt Lake, Utah ; 
