DESCRIPTION OF A NEW BRITISH MOULD. 213 



6. Lophoderus ministranus ; abundant ; Pressmenan. 



7. Eudorea lineola ; rare ; new to Scotland. 



8. Xanthosetia hamana ; ex. -rare ; new to Scotland. 



9. Polia chi ; very rare ; taken in July and September. 



10. Chareas graminis ; not common ; Traprain Law. 



1 1. Ptycophoda immutata ; pretty common ; new to Scotland. 



Yours truly, 



Archibald Hepburn. 

 Whittingham, June 10, 1847. 



P.S. I stated verbally, to a few of the members, that I had 

 taken the very rare Graphiphora pyrophila last June, and 

 had presented the specimen to the British Museum ; also that 

 in 1845, 1 took Melitaea silene, for which the only other Scotch 

 locality given by Messrs. Humphrey and Westwood, is Kil- 

 mun. A. H. 



Description of a new British Mould. By George Johnston, 

 M.D., &c 



January 6, 1847. 

 I am willing to believe, with my Lord Bacon, that Mould 

 " is something between putrescence and a plant." It settles 

 a much mooted point as well as any other theory has yet 

 done. Organic substance, in a state of decay, is Mould's 

 fruitful matrix, — life from death, — the ever-yearning change 

 from a worse to a better condition ; for life, even in this its 

 lowest state, is better certainly than sad corruption. And 

 how beautiful are many Moulds, when, with the microscope, we 

 discover Nature's handicraft in them to the eye of sense ! We 

 can scarcely but believe that they have a sort of enjoyment 

 in their life, and in the evolution of their symmetrical figures. 

 One sort is now vigorous and abundant on some plants in my 

 little " Green-house," where it is as noxious as the Green-fly, 

 or Aphis; and it is rather singular that the species has 

 not been yet recorded as a British production. I have the 

 high authority of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley for this fact, who 



