NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
373
[Mr. Pickard-Cambridge has given, in his valuable monograph, The
Spiders of Dorset, the following remarks which bear out Mr. Webb's
observations:—"This is a common spider in Dorsetshire (and indeed in
most other parts of England). It may be found on various plants and
flowers, in which it lies concealed both by the petals and other parts, as well
as very often by its own similarity to them in colour. I have found the
female very partial to the blooms of the great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) and
have more than once seen it kill and catch a bee, which had come to suck the
honey from the flower. On another occasion I observed one, hidden among
the petals of a rose, catch a small copper butterfly (Chrysophanus phloeas),
which it quickly overpowered and killed. The bloom of the furze is also a
favourite resort of the Misumena vatia, The males are generally wanderers
from plant to plant, and from flower to flower, while the female remains for
a long time in one place."—Ed.]
BOTANY.
Saponaria Vaccaria, L. at Braintree.—This plant is mentioned in
Hooker as "a casual in cornfields;" other botanists do not seem to notice it
as a British wild-flower. It has been found on the banks of the railway lines
near Braintree for two summers, one specimen in 1897 and three in 1898.
From the growth and habit of the plant—the flower is pink with an inflated
calyx with five projections, the plant having smooth glaucous foliage and stems
—I took it for a Catchfly, and was for some time completely baffled in my
attempts to discover its name. There is not much chance for this pretty
wild-flower to become naturalized in the neighbourhood, as the sandy gravel
of the railway lines is sedulously weeded every summer by servants of the
Company, just before the plant has ripened its seed. A potted specimen has
produced plenty of seed, from which I hope to get plants next year.—(Miss)
May Cunnington, Braintree. [We hear from Mr. Shenstone that S. Vaccaria
has also appeared at Bulford. It has appeared on several occasions in Hertford-
shire in a sporadic manner. One of the most remarkable instances is that
recorded by Mr. R. G. Andrews in Science Gossip for 1874. In 1873 parts of
the bed of the Lea were dredged, and the muddy gravel, deposited on the river-
side, produced among other plants S. Vaccaria, but it disappeared in the next
year.—Ed.]
Villarsia (Limnanthemum) nymphaeoides, Vent, in Epping Forest.
—I have found the "Fringed Water Lily," (Villarsia nymphaeoides) in tolerable
plenty in a pond in the Forest this summer. It is mentioned by Warner in
Planta- Woodfordienses as occurring in the river Roding, but I have not yet
discovered the plant in that stream.—S. Arthur Sewell, F.R.H.S.,
Buckhurst Hill.
[Mr. Sewell's is a very interesting re-discovery of this plant. Warner's
reference to it is as follows :—"In rivers and large ditches. Found in the
River Rhodon, almost opposite the eighth mile stone in the road to Woodford
Bridge, near the bridge, and between that and Luxborough House, Sir
Edward Walpole's; not common." To this Gibson adds: "Near Abridge,
Henry Doubleday." Villarsia is a native of the Thames, where it was first
noticed by Matthias de Lobel in 1570, and subsequently in "vast plenty"
near Sunbury by Sir Joseph Banks. It used to occur in ponds quite near
London, at Hackney and Hampstead. According to the Hertfordshire Flora,