Linnaan Society. 427 



periodical for September 1852, has expressed a doubt (which is 

 shared by others) of the existence of the continental V. emarginatus 

 in this country. On this subject Mr. Buckton read part of a letter 

 from Mr. Couch addressed to Mr. Borrer, to the following effect. 

 Mr. Couch regrets that he has no specimens, it being his custom to 

 send away his specimens as soon as he has made such an examination 

 as he deems necessary. The last he had were sent to Mr. Hey sham 

 at Chester, and the little Horse-shoe Bat travelled all the way from 

 Cornwall thither alive. He is j)reparing a paper on the subject of 

 Bats for the ' Zoologist,' in which he has collected many particulars 

 which he thinks interesting ; but with regard to the disputed identity 

 of his species he refers to the 'Naturalist' for November 1851, 

 where will be found a paper on this species, with a figure, by Mr. 

 Cocks of Falmouth. The specimen which Mr. Couch examined, 

 and to which he assigned this name, agreed with the characters 

 there pointed out; and appeared to differ widely from any other 

 British Bat. The notch in the ears was much more decided than i^, 

 Mr. Bell's figure. 



Read also a ** Notice of the appearance of myriads of a species of 

 Aphis in the North of England, during the present autumn." By 

 J. Hogg, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



These insects not only abounded in immense numbers in countiy 

 places, but also in vast swarms in the very centre of the town of 

 Stockton. As these insects appeared just at the time when the 

 cholera had broken out in that portion of England, many people 

 considered that they were connected with that disease ; and that 

 they were forerunners, or at least indicative of the presence of the 

 cholera. This Mr. Hogg considers to be fabulous and absurd, but 

 he thinks that some of the same causes which might promote cholera, 

 might likewise assist in the rapid increase of these Aphides at the 

 same season ; such as warm, moist weather, the absence of wind, 

 and other like causes. Or indeed the excess, or it maybe the want 

 of electricity in the atmosphere, might tend to account for the presence 

 of cholera, and the extraordinary multitudes of these insects in the 

 same localities ; but that the existence of the cholera was in any way- 

 influenced by the Aphides, or the converse, he altogether disbelieves. 

 Mr. Hogg exhibited some of these insects in the hope that the 

 species might be determined. He had not examined them minutely, 

 but believed that they might prove to be the Aphis Rumicis. They 

 were taken by him at Norton, in the county of Durham, in the latter 

 part of September in the present year. He added that he has 

 no recollection of having witnessed before such multitudes of these 

 black, or dark-coloured, flies with light wings ; and that they were 

 extremely troublesome by flying into the eyes and mouth. 



Read, further, a paper entitled " Remarks on Sarsaparillas." By 

 Berthold Seemann, Esq., Ph.D., F.L.S. &c. 



After quoting a remark of Sir W. Hooker, that those plants which 

 are most useful to mankind are frequently the least known botanically, 

 and the testimony of the late Dr. Pereira as to the unsatisfactory 

 nature of our knowledge of the botanical sources of the various sorts 



