306 



BOTANICAL OBITUARY. 



It is hoped that some of these seeds may have been given to an 

 Entomologist, and that the insect may be reared to its perfect state- 

 The kernel, like most of the Euphorbia-tribe, is probably of an acrid 

 or poisonous nature to man or other animals. — W. J. H. 



r 



Since the above was written, a seed that had been accidentally 

 crushed, and so laid open, showed the perfect larva within, which con- 

 tinued quiet for some days, but has now spun a beautifully white silky 

 web, entirely concealing itself, and in which it will probably undergo 

 its transformation ; and, while we are in the press, Mr. Lenox-Conyng- 

 ham communicates the following memorandum to us : 



" I am sorry T have not previously had leisure to report progress re- 

 lating to our locomotive seeds, and my post mortem examination of the 

 one that appeared, when I lately observed it, to contain a live insect 

 with feelers, and his head looking out through a hole he had cut for 

 himself in the wall of his house. On opening his house — the seed- 

 vessel — I found that the inside was filled with silk or cotton, in which 

 the insect had carefully wrapped himself up. Opposite the external 

 aperture was a corresponding one in the coccoon, and through these 

 holes the insect's head was a little protruded. When I separated the 

 two sides of the seed, the insect dropped through the hole in his coc- 

 coon, and I then examined it with a magnifying glass. It looked a 

 perfectly developed small fly, with wings lying flat on its back. Pro- 

 ceeding from the crown of its head were two rather long antennae ; and 

 it had the usual number of legs (six), of a reddish tinge. This is a 

 veiy unartistic description of what its appearance was when I opened 

 it ; but I think it best that you should know what it was, before you 

 see what it is. I have it all ready for your inspection.'' 



It now only remains for us to place the insect in the hands of a sci- 

 entific gentleman to determine it entomoloo-ical character and name; 



taken this duty. 



Westwood 



Botanical Obituary. 



months 



remember to have had occasion to lament the death of so many and 

 such able Botanists as at the present period: these, too, were men of 



