12 I'lc II ii.niM.s or TTtK 



I liad the seventh in coiirtiiemeiit for a I'urtni^'lit without resuU, 

 the insect stijad lastly relusing to lay, althou<;li 1 was convinced 

 tiiat it was tertile. As it also declined to I'eed, 1 liad recourse to 

 the usual practice in refractory cases of liolding the insect by the 

 wings, running out its proboscis on a tine needle, and allowing 

 the end of the org:in to rest on a pad of cotton wool which had 

 previously been soaked in sugar water. 



" Frefjuent repetition of this had the effect of rendering the 

 insect quite tame. On the fifteenth day I was demonstrating this 

 fact to a friend by introducing the tip of a finger, to which the insect 

 would immediately cling. After one such occurrence I trans- 

 ferred the insect to a leaf of a potted plant of white clover, when 

 to my surprise it laid an egg. I allowed it to remain for some 

 minute-!, and as nothing further hap|)ened 1 decided to repeat the 

 experiment. I transferred the insect to another leaf of the same 

 plant, and it again laid an egg. To cut the story short, I moved 

 it seventeen times and obtained seventeen eggs, after which it 

 refused to lay. So far as I am aware, this butterfly had not 

 previously laid an egg, and never afterwards laid another. It died 

 the following day. 



" T can offer no explanation of this butterfly's refusal or 

 inability to lay for tlie first fortnight. As a reason for its sub- 

 sequent behaviour, I formed the opinion that, by the end of the 

 fortnight, the insect was in a weak condition and rapidly failing, 

 and having an instinctive knowledge of its approaching end was 

 impelled to deposit its ova while there was yet time; no doubt 

 the hustling it received assisted materially in this direction. 

 I was assisted to this conclusion by the fact that, in one instance, 

 the insect did not wait to be transferred to a leaf but actually 

 attached an egs; to my finger. A curious fact was that it would 

 not deposit an egg until it was n)oved." 



Tlie llev. Canon Gr. E. Edllock-AVebstek showed a collection 

 of thirty varieties of Chara hisplda, explaining that in that genus 

 varietal names are discarded, as the variation is so great and so 

 frequent, that confusion would be the result, were it attempted. 



The President and Dr. A. B. Kendle spoke on the interest of 

 the exhibition, and Canon Bullock-Webster replied to questions. 



The General Secretary exhibited a small volume, for which he 

 had been searching for thirty-eight years, namely C. A. Agardh's 

 ' Aphorismi botanici,' Luudse, 1817-20, 8^ as conKrming, in a 

 striking degree, the practice prevalent in Scandinavia down to 

 the middle of the previous centur}', the Prajses being the actual 

 author, and the Respondentes being little better than dummies. 

 In this volume the text runs on, with 10 title-pages, having the 

 names of as many graduates, interposed between each sheet of 

 10 pages, in no fewer than in twelve instances cutting a word in 

 two and sharing it between two Kespondentes. 



The woi'k is not in the librarv of the Linnean Societv. 



