112 NOTES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
Land and Freshwater Shells of the Roding Valley.—I have found Helix
caperata, which Mr. Crouch records from the chalk at Grays, on the ridge of
Chalky Boulder-clay which divides the Roding from the Cripsey Brook, Helix
rufescens and H. ericetorum, both common on chalk lands, I have also found on
the Chalky Boulder-clay near Fyfield, and in the neighbourhood of Ongar. I
have had most successful hunts after water shells in old pits dug in the Boulder-
clay for chalk, and now full of water. One afternoon I collected an abundance of
Valvata cristata, Planorbis nitidus, P. nautileus, P. carinatus and Ancylus lacustris
from these old pits, all of which shells I was very pleased to meet with.—Horace
W. MONCKTON, F.G.S., Pump Court, Temple, March 16th, 1891.
Primula elatior, Jacq.—In the April number of the "Journal of Botany,''
our member, Prof. C. C. Babington, F.R.S., makes the following observations on
this peculiarly Essex species, which are interesting in connection with Mr. Christy's
and Mr. French's papers : "I have a plant of this (P. elatior), growing in a pot,
and also one of P. vulgaris ; this caused me to notice the development of the young
leaves. I found a most marked difference between them when very young. Those
oi P. elatior axe transversely plicate, so strongly as to show no connecting veins
between the ridges ; in P. vulgaris the leaves are conspicuously reticulate-rugose
from the very first. As the leaves increase in size this difference becomes much
less apparent, and does not attract attention. Unfortunately I have not a root of
P. veris to examine on this point."
Exceptionally Small Rainfall of the Last Eight Months.—Our mem-
ber, Mr. F. Chancellor, J.P., writes advising economy with respect to the use of
water this summer, owing to the meagre rainfall during the past winter. He
says: "With every care it will, I am afraid, be difficult to avert a water famine
in some districts during the coming summer and autumn. The following is a
table of the rainfall for the corresponding eight months of the ten previous years.
This will show that I am not unnecessarily drawing attention to the matter :—