Linnaan Society. 49 



the two lateral petals. The difference in -habit is considerable in 

 consequence of the great density of the spike, and the arrangement 

 of the flowers in three spiral lines*. 



A notice of a specimen of this plant, exhibited before the Society 

 on the 7th of February 1843, by the Rev. William Hincks, F.L.S. 

 &c, will be found at p. 462 of vol. xi. of this Journal. 



Read also a continuation of Mr. Griffith's memoir, comprehending 

 the parts relating to Cytinus and to Mystropetalon. 



March 19.— E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



Read the commencement of a " Monograph on the Class Myria- 

 poda, Order Chilopoda; with observations on the general arrange- 

 ment of the Articulata" By George Newport, Esq., Fellow of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, President of the Entomological Society, 

 &c. Communicated by the Secretary. 



April 2.— R. Brown, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 

 Read a continuation of Mr. Newport's " Monograph on the My- 

 riapoda Chilopoda." 



April 16.— E. Forster, Esq., V.P ., in the Chair. 



Read the conclusion of Mr. Newport's " Monograph on the My- 

 riapoda Chilopoda." 



Mr. Newport commences his memoir by remarking on the smaller 

 degree of attention which has been paid to Myriapoda than to any 

 other class of Articulata. His inability, from this circumstance, sa- 

 tisfactorily to identify the specimens in the anatomical examination 

 of which he was engaged, induced him to undertake a complete re- 

 vision of the class, as far as the materials within his reach, and con- 

 tained in the cabinets of the Rev. F. W. Hope, the British Museum, 

 the United Service Museum, that of the Zoological Society, and in 

 the Linnean and Banksian collections in the possession of the Society, 

 would admit. 



After passing in review the characters of the class, and noticing 

 the different views of authors with respect to its classification as a 

 whole, Mr. Newport enters at length into the reasons which induce 

 him, in accordance with Leach,. Latreille and others, and in oppo- 

 sition to Professor Brandt, to separate the Myriapoda from true in- 

 sects, and to place them, as a class, immediately before the Annelida. 



He details his motives for preferring, with reference to the classi- 

 fication of the Invertebrata, a system founded on the skeleton and 

 organs of locomotion, together with the nervous system, to that 

 which is usually adopted, based on the organs of nutrition. Guided 

 by these views he proposes to place the sub-kingdom Articulata at 

 the head of the Invertebrata, and (following in the steps of our di- 

 stinguished countrymen Kirby and Spence) to commence with the 

 Hexapods or true Insects, placing after these the Octopods or Arach- 



* In a subsequent communication Mr. Babington states that he lias iden- 

 tified the Irish plant with specimens of Spiranthes cernua, Rich., from North 

 America, in the herbarium of Sir W. J. Hooker. 



Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xiv. E 



