Queries and Answers, S99 



thereat ; not, as T. C. states, at the top or tail end * Such, I believe I 

 am justified in saying, is the real fact, after having repeatedly watched the 

 operation of the butterfly bursting from the chrysalis ; unless, indeed, I have 

 viewed nature with a sort of inverted vision, and utterly misconstrued her 

 experimental lessons. If wrong, however, I shall be happy to stand cor- 

 rected : and I have no doubt we shall hear, ere long, what other observers 

 will have to say to the theory of T. C, which, for the present at least, I 

 find harder to believe in than even he appears to have done himself. I am. 

 Sir, yours, &c.— W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory, March 8. 1832. 



In Insect Transformations y it is the Tail of the Caterpillar which becomes the 

 Head of the Butterfly, (p. 206.) — Now, Sir, if we believe this assertion, 

 we must disbelieve Reaumur, Swammerdam, Lyonnet, and other authors, 

 who have so thoroughly investigated, and so beautifully illustrated, this 

 subject ; and we must disbelieve, also, the evidence of our own eyes, and 

 the result of our own observations. But, of course, no entomologist, not 

 even the merest tyro in the study, will believe such an assertion : yet, for 

 the sake of children, or any marvel-loving persons into whose hands your 

 Magazine may fall, I beg to state my positive knowledge that this miracu- 

 lous change does not take place. I am, Sir, yours, &c, — Edward New- 

 man. Deptford, March 20. 1832. 



Lamellate Petals , and the Calyx of Daphne Mezereum, and Laureola. — 

 L. D.'s query. Vol. IV. p. 188., partly answered Vol. IV. p. 558., will 

 receive a farther solution from the following remarks. Professor Lindley, 

 in publishing Sollya heterophylla (a lovely blue-flowered climber, from 

 New Holland) in the Botanical Register for January 1. 1832. t. 1466., 

 thus remarks, in describing that species : — " The petals readily separate 

 into two lamellae, as if they were composed of two plates grown face to 

 face. This may serve to show how unimportant is a similar circumstance 

 in Z)aphne, where it has been thought to be a proof of a calyx and corolla 

 having in that genus grown together into a single floral envelope. We 

 allude to this circumstance now, because we lately saw the idea revived 

 somewhere [doubtless in this Magazine, Vol. IV. p. 558.] ; otherwise we 

 should have supposed it to have been long since consigned to the list of 

 exploded errors." Since the remarks in Vol. IV. p. 558., were published, 

 the mezereon, Z)aphne Mezereum L., has blossomed, being now (April 1.) 



" though leafless, well attired. 



With blushing wreaths, investing every spray :" 



and the coloured calyx exhibits in the tubular part the lamellate formation 

 above described, as do the calyxes of Daphne Laureola, now also in bloom ; 

 but this formation is most obvious in -Daphne Mezereum, on account of 

 the rosy colour which resides mainly in the outer lamella or skin, the 

 inner fabric not having this rosy hue ; and because the solution between 

 the outer and inner lamella is more perfect in the calyxes of I>. Mezereum, 

 than in those of Z). Laureola, which are, moreover, of a yellowish green 

 hue throughout, as well externally as internally. Some mezereum blos- 

 soms will, it is hoped, in northern aspects, be left for L. D.'s examination, 

 even so late as the 1st of May, when this may meet his eye. — J. D. 



* If figures be needed in illustration of my meaning, I might refer to the 

 cut of the caterpillar of Vanessa Antiopa {Insect Transformations, p. 276.), 

 compared with that of the chrysalis of Vanessa To (p. 295. of the same 

 work); remarking, however, that in the latter of the two cuts the natural 

 position of the chrysahs is exactly inverted, the chrysalis being represented 

 head uppermost. See plate 1. (Papilio Antiopa of Lewin's Papilios.) 

 But a reference far more satisfactory and conclusive than any book, of 

 whatever authority, can supply, will be to Nature herself. 



