1855.] Linnean Society. 369 



the silk-growers never allow the cocoons intended for winding to 

 produce the moth ; still those cocoons, which were set aside in order 

 to obtain the perfect insects for breeding from, would also remain 

 uninjured after the escape of the moths. 



Read the commencement of a memoir " On the Structure and 

 Affinities of the Natural Order of Balanophorece." By J. D. Hooker, 

 Esq., M.D., F.R.S.. F.L.S. &c. 



February 20. 

 Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Read a Letter addressed to the Secretary by Mr. E.D. Lockwood 

 of Haileybury College, mentioning the occurrence in that neigh- 

 bourhood, during the late severe weather, of several rare birds, and 

 among them a fine specimen of the Red-throated Diver and the little 

 Auk, both killed between Ware and Hertford. Hawfinches, Mr. 

 Lockwood adds, have been very common in the neighbourhood. 



Read also a continuation of Dr. Hooker's memoir " On the Struc- 

 ture and Affinities of the Natural Order Balanophorem," commenced 

 at the last Meeting. 



March 6. 



Thomas Bell, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Syme, F.L.S. , exhibited specimens of Ophioglossum vulgatum, 

 L., from Swanbister, Orkney, together with a large series of speci- 

 mens from other localities ; and comparing them with an extensive 

 series of specimens of Oph. Lusitanicum from various distant locali- 

 ties, came to the conclusion, in common with several recent bota- 

 nical writers, that these two supposed species are in reality merely 

 varieties of one and the same specific type. 



Mr. N. B. Ward, F.L.S., exhibited on the part of Mr. Maxwell 

 T. Masters, Sub-Curator of the Fielding Herbarium at Oxford, an 



