Miscellaneous, 505 



menoptera has been accumulating for at least thirty years, was a 

 favourite part of Dr. Leach's collection, and has been made over a 

 wide and variegated country ; while Mr. Barnston's was formed in 

 three months, on one spot, and under almost unheard-of disadvan- 

 tages, counterbalanced, however, by an enthusiasm not easily de- 

 terred by difficulties. 



British Collection Collected at 



in British Museum. Martin's Falls. 



Cimbicidse 10 4 



Tenthredinidae 157 76 



Siricidae, &c 7 2 



Ichneumomdse 200 47 



Chalcidida; ? ? 



Chrysididse 22 1 



Formicidae 11 7 



Mutillidse 5 



Sapygidse 2 



Pompilidse, &c 38 2 



Crabronidse 57 16 



Vespidae 17 4 



Apidae 170 33 



u A striking proof that the time has not yet come to reason cor- 

 rectly on the distribution of Hymenopterous insects, — at least in 

 British North America." — Arctic Searching Expedition, by Sir John 

 Richardson, vol. ii. p. 354. 



Mr. Adam White desires to add, that the above paraeffplia could 

 be extended to other branches of articulated animals. When men like 

 Kroyer go to Spitzbergen and Iceland, and Hollboll to Greenland, 

 fish and Crustacea " new to science " are found and described by them. 

 Should his friend Harry Goodsir of the Erebus return to England, or 

 should Captains Penny, Stewart, Lieutenant Osborne and MacClintock 

 discover his papers ; the scientific world will find that animal life is not 

 so rare in these arctic seas as is generally supposed by many clever 

 and enterprising men, whose researches do not lie in the direction of 

 natural history. Captains Penny and Stewart and Dr. Sutherland saw 

 walruses, narwhals, polar bears and seals in "Wellington Channel. 

 These creatures do not all live on one another. It is well to remember 

 the rough but true lines so well known to every naturalist — 



" Large fleas and little fleas have smaller fleas to bite 'em ; 

 The smaller fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.''* 



ACANTHUS MOLLIS (LINN.). 



In the course of last summer I received from the Rev. John P. 

 Mayne of St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly, some flowers of Acanthus mol- 

 lis, with a request to be informed of its name, as he found it grow- 

 ing wild in that island. In answer to questions addressed to him, 

 he has since informed me that it grows in a spot separated from 

 some houses by a narrow field, on the south side of a hedge, upon 

 some heaps of stones collected there on the destruction of an old 

 lane that formerly passed the spot. An old man who rents the field 



