264 
WAYSIDE NOTES. 
ill varied situations, and on different subsoils, as sand, clay, and chalk. 
The conviction has gradually been forced on one that the old adage 
was formed from insufficient data, and without allowing for constitu¬ 
tional differences, and dissimilarity of localities. 
Pinguicula Vulgaris in South Beds. 
The last edition of Watson’s “Topographical Botany” makes no 
mention of this plant as occurring in Bedfordshire. It may, there¬ 
fore, he worth recording that it has recently been found in two 
localities, one at Totternhoe, in a boggy meadow not far from the base 
of Totternhoe Knoll, where it is associated with Parnassia palustris, 
Orchis Inti folia, Carex binervis, and the locally rare moss Hypnum 
Sendtneri. The other station is on the lower chalk escarpment, 
on the open hill side, but with a northerly aspect, and with a fringe of 
trees crowning the top of the hill above them, so that they are never 
exposed to the full heat of the sun. Pinguicula was first detected in 
this place bv Mr. C. Crouch, whose eye was arrested by its blossoms as 
he was walking up the hill side, but with no thought of finding this 
plant in such a locality. The station is on one side of a large coombe, 
which has apparently been hollowed out by the action of springs, one 
of which still exists. The Pinguicula is here also associated with 
Parnassia palustris, and not far from it is Carex binervis by the side of 
the spring, and these plants are possibly the last lingering relics of a 
rich paludal flora that once occupied the base of the coombe when the 
springs were much higher than they are now. Both Pinguicula and 
Parnassia are abundant, but the former is limited to a narrow strip of 
the hill side, while the latter is distributed over a considerable area. 
It would seem that the Butterworts are dependent entirely upon the 
soil for their nitrogenous food, as one could detect no insects on the 
leaves, and the station is not favourable to the development of insect 
life, as it is decidedly cool. Have any other readers of the “ Midland 
Naturalist” found these plants in similar localities? 
James Saunders, Luton. 
We referred last month to the “ Naturalists’ Monthly,” the first 
number of which was then about to be issued. The number contains 
an article on the “Pathology of the Celandine”—why the word 
“ Pathology ” is used, Mr. Friend, the writer, can probably tell us ; a 
rather imaginative, but still thoughtful sketch describing the descent 
of the present-time salmon hook from the flint hook of prehistoric 
man; the first portion of each of “A Study in my Garden” (on 
Aphides), “ Binary Suns,” a “ Biography of Charles Darwin ” (with an 
engraved portrait, of which the moustache bears alone a close resem¬ 
blance to reality), “Shell Collecting in Guernsey and Hern,” “A 
Chapter on the Centipedes and Millipedes,” and “The Origin and 
History of Fresh Water Faunas.” Add to these numerous brief notes, 
reports of various societies, both metropolitan and provincial, and 
reviews, the whole occupying twenty pages of the size of the present 
“ Gardeners’ Chronicle,” and our readers will see that a very copious 
bill of fare is offered. We heartily wish Dr. Williams success with 
his venture, but our faith is not strong. Happily for it, the Editor 
of the new “ monthly ” thinks differently, and already talks of an 
