399 



The tiilx'i's uitli \\\v loii-cst stalks aiv iIk.sc Inniicd latest in 

 the season. 



It nii,ii-ht he chii d I'nv this raci' that its five llowei'in.i:- su.u'- 



gests a ])riniiti\'e tvjie: and in sn^port i)e a<hhiced tliat it is re- 

 cortled ahoxc as wihl in the Mmnitain I'l'oxince of I.n/.on. l''nrthei- 

 it might he said that it appears to l)e somewhat e.\tensi\el\ wihl as 

 male (lowers max he r(inn(i in herharia on specimens from various 

 localities in the Philippine islands Mhieh appear (piite likely to he 

 of this race and are ndt I'ecorded as enltivated plants. But Dios- 

 corca ('scale II Id eertainl\ pei'sists in India i'ov awhile on the sites 

 of ahandoned cultivation : and this partienlai' Philippine race of it hy 

 reason of its ditTuse tuhei's is the one of all most likelv to he left 

 Itehind in the soil when the land is altandoned to re\ert to jungle, 

 under wiiieli view donhts at once arise as to the validitv of any 

 argument I'l'oni its oecnri'eiice in an uneulti\ ateil condition that 

 it is indigenous in Luzon: and then again its remarkable peculiai-ity 

 that the purpose of the protective si)iny roots is not fullilled l)y 

 reason of the spreading of the tubers beyond them suggests that it 

 is not primiti\e. We are conscMpiently left in as much uncertainty 

 as regards the original liome of the i>lant as we were: and are in 

 need of new light. 



T. 11. BuitKILL. 



GERMINATION OF THE SEEDS OF ERYTHRINA 

 BEFORE FALLING. 



in the \cr\- Wet weather thai occui'red in Singapore unseason- 

 ably through February, ami March. P.tn. the seeds of Enjlhrimi 

 lilliosiieniia in Tanglin gernnnated while attached to the open 

 legume-walls still hanging on tlie tree. 



SCOLIA ERRATICA, Smith, A PARASITE OF THE 



RED-COCONUT-WEEVIL (RHYNCHOPHORUS 



FERRUGINEUS). 



Near Bemhan, Malacca, on ^'ovember ^Hth, 1!)1<;. in the course 

 of an insi)ectioii of Cocoinit palms for the Red Wetnil and the 

 Black Jihinoceros beetle, two pupating ])arasites were obtained from 

 within pupa cases of the Weevil: and these liaving hatched out on 

 Xovember 38th in a breeding cage, were determined by Dr. II. 

 Hanitsch as Scolia rrnillcd. Smith. 



Professor Maxwell Lefroy in his Indian Insect Life (Calcutta, 

 1909) p. 183 says (d' the Scojiidae. to which it belongs, '"as to the 

 habits of this familv in India, as a whole they are probably para- 

 sitic upon the larvae of Coleoptera in the soil: they persistently 

 ily over the soil, but none have been reared : Froggatt (Agric. 

 (iazette. X. S. Wales, 1902) records Did is foniwsa. (Uien., as an 

 enemy of the l)eetle Xi/lolniix's aiislralinis. Thoms..* in Queens- 

 land ; the wasp burrows down to the grub in the soil, sti ngs and 



*The species of Xylotrupes are Ehinoceros beetles allied to the Black 



Coconut beetle. 



