54 Linnean Society. [June 5, 



the capsules first drew Dr, Bromfield's attention to what he would 

 otherwise have regarded as merely L. pilosa. It seems impro- 

 bable that it should be a hybrid between L. pilosa and L. Forsteri, 

 being so much more plentiful than the assumed parents, to say 

 nothing of the very minute seeds, so different in this respect from 

 those of either. Dr. Bromfield has not met with it as yet in any 

 other locality but that above mentioned. 



June 5. 



Thomas Horsfield, M.D., V.P., in the Chair. 



Mr. James Yates, F.L.S., exhibited flowering specimens from his 

 garden at Highgate of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, Eschsch., a species first 

 discovered in California by the late Mr. A. Menzies, F.L.S. 



Mr. Cornelius Varley, at the request of the Vice-President in the 

 Chair, exhibited numerous drawings illustrative of the structure and 

 circulation in different species of Chara, and entered into an expla- 

 nation of the more remarkable circumstances connected therewith. 



Read a paper " On Ichneumon Atropos, Curt." By George New- 

 port, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S. 



Several years ago the author obtained many specimens of this in- 

 sect both in the larva and perfect states at Canterbury, chiefly in the 

 year 1829, but he has not met with them since 1834. He has taken 

 the perfect insect in the month of July, and has many times reared 

 it from the larva state in which it is a parasite within the body of 

 the larva of Sphinx ligustri, on which he considers it to be more 

 common than on that of Acherontia Atropos. Mr. Newport gives 

 some account of the habits and circumstances of its growth. It 

 occurs in the body of the Sphinx larva and in the pupa from August 

 to the following April, at which time it changes to a nymph, and 

 remains in this state for a month to six weeks and comes forth in 

 June. The anatomy of the larva was then described and shown to 

 be in every particular in strict accordance with the condition of life 

 under which this parasite exists, and confirmatory of the view of the 

 author that the habits of different species are invariably in accord- 



