156 INJUmOUS INSECTS. 



was a man perfectly free from guile or deceit; in fact, that no two meanings 

 or ftilse pretences ever attached to any assertion he made. I have often con- 

 ferred with him on the subject of the fossil seeds in question, and have walked 

 with him over the very spot, where he told me he had found them at the 

 depth of thirty feet. I recollect his remarks, as if they had been only spoken 

 yesterday, *'in this barrow, Doctor, I found the seeds I told you of, and from 

 which were reared the raspberry plants I have sliowed you the two dried 

 specimens of; and yet Dr. Lindley, to whom I gave the seeds from which 

 these plants were raised, has never thought it worth his while to mention 

 my name or me as the discoverer.' " 



For the truth of this assertion I beg to refer my readers to "Lindley 's 

 Introduction to Botany," published in 1835; when the first notice of these 

 seeds appears to the public, Dr. Smith again says — "I have seen a letter from 

 Dr. Lindley, date'd 1836, on this subject, to Mr. Maclean, and a copy of the 

 letter of the latter in reply, together with a copy of a certificate of the 

 labourers employed by Mr. Maclean, in proof of the fact." 



These facts may be thus briefly and simply stated; that Mr. Maclean did 

 open a barrow near Dorchester, at or near the encampment known and called 

 "Maiden Castle," and one of the most perfect encampments in the West of 

 England; in which barrow Mr. M, found the remains of a portion of a skeleton, 

 from which he took a mass of matter containing raspberry seeds; a portion 

 of which was sent to Dr. Lindley, who placed them under the care of Mr. 

 Hartwig, then employed in the gardens at Chiswick, near London; four of 

 these seeds germinated, and produced the common raspberry. Now, if we have 

 as much proof from Dr. Lindley that the seeds were actually sown, and ger- 

 minated, and produced the raspberries in question, as we have of Mr. Maclean 

 finding the mass of seedy matter, the question as to the vitality of raspberry 

 seeds, two or three thousand years old, is for ever a settled question. The 

 above has already been published by me in "Notes and Queries," vol. vi., p. p. 

 535, for lS52, but as many of your readers may not have seen that interesting 

 work, I have been induced to send them for insertion in "The Naturalist." 



5, Middle Street, Taunton, February Gth., 1854. 



INJURIOUS INSECTS.— No. 2. SIRUX OIQAS. 



BY J. MC'iNTOSH, ESQ. 



The Sirex gigas belongs to the order Hymenoptera, and is a very destructive 

 insect to dead trees and timber, particularly Ahies excelsa. It is said to be 

 very common in Sweden, and in the Alps and Pyrenees; of late years it 

 has been met with in considerable quantities in England; we have ourselves 

 taken it in Surrey, Hamp.shire, Dorset, and Somerset, in the act of depositing 

 her eggs in timber. Our Fig. 1 represents a full-grown female, antennce inserted 

 near the forehead, thirteen to twenty-five articulations, mandibles denticulated 



