246 Linnean Society. [June 7? 



Mr. Hogg, F.L.S., exhibited siDecimens of an umbellate variety of 

 the common Primrose {Primula vulgaris, var. (3. of Smith's ' English 

 Flora'), gathered in Thorp "Wood, near Stockton-upon-Tees, on the 

 12th of May in the present year. 



Read some Notes " On the Artificial Breeding of Salmon and 

 Trout, with Remarks on the Modes of Fecundating their Ova." By 

 John Hogg, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



After referring to his notice of the artificial breeding of Salmon, 

 as practised by Mr. Isaac Fisher, read before the Society on the 4th 

 of May last, and of which an abstract is given in the ' Proceedings,' 

 p. 178, Mr. Hogg gave an account of some further experiments by 

 the same gentleman in the River Swale, made with considerable 

 success, during the past winter and spring. A letter on this subject 

 from Mr. Fisher appeared in the York Herald, dated May 3rd, 

 1853, from which we learn that ova, placed by him on the 25th of 

 December last in a wooden box with gravel at the bottom, and 

 through which the stream was continuously flowing, had nearly all 

 produced young salmon by about the middle of April. Some expe- 

 riments made about the same time by the late Earl of Tyrconnell 

 failed of success from want of attention to the locale. Attempts 

 were also made by Henry Coxe, Esq., of Scruton Hall, and Major 

 Wade of Hanxwell Hall, to breed artificially from Trout, in which 

 the latter gentleman had succeeded. After pressing the subject on 

 the attention of all who may have the opportunity of making expe- 

 riments, Mr. Fisher concludes his letter by a caution against what 

 he considers an incorrect statement, taken from the Perth Courier, 

 in which it is said that Dr. Robertson of Dunkeld, " conceiving 

 that the ova of the female were impregnated previous to their 

 development, within the body of the fish," had taken "a number 

 of live female trout from the spawning-bed, and having extracted 

 the roe, deposited them in a perforated zinc box, containing also 

 some gravel," which was " upon the 14th of October last placed in 

 a running stream, and on examining the box [in April], several of 

 the ova were found to be hatched." On this latter experiment Mr. 

 Hogg observed, that the result could only be accounted for by one 

 of the two following methods. Either the ova of the female trout 

 had in some way received the influence of the fecundating principle 

 of the male trout, previous to Dr. Robertson's depositing them in his 

 perforated zinc box ; or, the perforated zinc box, which contained 

 the ova as expressed from the females^ was placed in the running 

 stream within the fecundating influence of the males. The former 



