158 Linnean Society. [Dec. 16, 



dredgings of Mr. Barlee, Mr. ^P Andrew and Professor Forbes, by 

 which so much has been done to increase our knowledge of the 

 living inhabitants of its surrounding seas, Mr. White expresses an 

 opinion that the zoological riches of the coasts of Shetland will be 

 found to equal, if not to surpass, those of the Firths of Forth or of 

 Clyde, and even of the coasts of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall them- 

 selves. He refers to the two principal rarities in the flora of these 

 islands (the Arenaria Norvegica, Gunner, and Ajuga pyramidalis, L.), 

 and concludes by announcing the discovery by himself of a Lapland 

 species of Humble-bee, new to the British fauna, which occurs not 

 uncommonly in his brother's garden at Lerwick, is still more fre- 

 quent in that of Mr. Bruce of Sandlodge opposite Mousa, and seems 

 even more abundant in Unst. This was immediately recognized by 

 Mr. Frederick Smith as Bombus arcticus of Dahlbom ; but as a species 

 of Bombus had been described by Kirby under the same specific name 

 in the Appendix to Capt. Parry's First Arctic Voyage in 1822, and 

 consequently ten years before the publication of Dahlbom's species, 

 Mr. "White proposes to name the latter Bombus Smithianvs. He 

 adds that, in accordance with Kir by 's rule in his 'Monographia Apum 

 Angliae,' he would have preferred the specific name of Smithiellus, 

 as indicating that it was named after a describer and not merely a 

 collector, but he has felt himself compelled to adopt the name of 

 Smithianvs to prevent the possibility of confusion with another 

 species of the family of Apidcs to which the name Smithella has been 

 applied. 



Read further a memoir " On the Forest- Trees of British Guiana 

 and their Uses in Naval and Civil Architecture." By Sir Robert 

 H. Schomburgk, Ph.D. &c. 



This memoir had been read at the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion at York, in October 1844 ; but as only a simple notice of this 

 reading had appeared in the Reports of the Association, the Secre- 

 tary (in whose hands Sir Robert Schomburgk had placed it) thought 

 it desirable to read it again before the Linnean Society in order that 

 an abstract might be published in the Society's ' Proceedings.' 



The trees are mostly indicated by their colonial names, but to 

 many of them Sir R. Schomburgk has been enabled to add their 

 scientific designation. 



Souari, Sewarri or Sewarra (Pekea tuberculosa, Aubl.). Of large 

 size and very abundant ; excellent for ship-building, mill- timber and 

 planks, and may be obtained from 20 to 40 feet long, and from 16 

 to 20 inches square. 



