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O B S E R V A T I O N S> T h e criterion of a great m i n d is its ability t o grasp the entirety of any given subject, and to view it u p o n all sides. T h e mass of mischief, cansed by people dwelling u p o n isolated points, is e n o r m o u s ; and the occupation of one half of o u r thinkers consists of exposing the fallacies of the other half —Henry Tibbats Stainton, 1856. WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF Carboniferous Shale.—A specimen, found in Field OS. 101 at Glemham Magna, a wet and low meadow, lying in the Valley of the River Aide, was identified by the British Museum on 13 June as " a Carboniferous Shale, of which the Plant-fragments are indeterminable though a microscopical examination might reveal spores which would give clue to its age. This it is impossible to judge from the local stratigraphy, for the Geological Survey Memoir of that area shows Glacial Drift deposits to be widespread, and the solid rocks revealed by borings are referred to London Clay or Reading Beds. That this specimen' came from either of these is very doiibtful, but it might well have been brought to Glemham by Drift ". I have found very similar Shale in Meadow OS. 103 only a few hundred yards further down the stream, which I think to be Kimmeridge Coal as it burnt fairly readily. Also, about a mile away in OS. 21 Stratford St. Andrew, there is an obviously largish deposit of Kimmeridgean fossiliferous Clay that has been expoaed by a bomb. I have no doubt these Glacial-borne Shales are lying numerously all over the County ; and it is especially interesting to have discovered so many in such a small a r e a . — ( T H E EARL OF) CRANBROOK ; 2 3 June. FUNGUS N E W TO SUFFOLK.—I possess many additions to the Victoria History list of the larger Suffolk Fungi, but must defer their publication tili enough courage is forthcoming to tackle their correct revision. Meanwhile Mr. Simpson has sent me from the edge of Shrubland Park last May Morchella conica, Pers., hitherto unrecorded hence, though I find an old letter from Mr. E. A. Ellis telling me that he detected the species at Gorleston during April 1936.—ARTHUR MAYFIELD ; 2 2 Sept. COWSLIP X POLYANTHUS.—I have found at Flixton near Bungay two groups of Cowslips, containing three or four plants. each, of a distinctly pink colour ; in some cases a pink and ordinarily-coloured bloom grow on the same plant. These groups are some distance apart, and nowhere near any coloured Primulas or flowers of that sort. Is this unusual, for I have never noticed it before ? I enclose a bloom to show the coloration.—R. SHAFTO ADAIR (BART.) ; 13 May, 1 9 4 7 . [Cowslips Primula veris, I , . trequently hybridise with Primroses P. acaulis, L., in a wild State, but very rarely with the various forms of dark-coloured garden Polyanthus, such as the interesting specimen received. T h e latter I have met with wild onlv at Theberton and, this spring, at Chelsworth.—F. W. S.]