1889.] NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 73 



built at Paterson, N. J., and standing for some time protected 

 from the weather in one of the buildings of that Company on 

 the Isthmus. He was sent to examine them. The varnish on 

 the wood-work of the cabs was unscratched. But he noticed 

 galleries of the Termites proceeding from the ground, up the 

 driving wheels, through the machinery to the cabs of the loco- 

 motives. On closer inspection he found the cabs so eaten by 

 Termites that he could thrust the blade of a pocket-knife through 

 any portion of the wood. The locomotives were purchased 

 after compensation- had been arranged for the construction of 

 new cabs. 



Mr. C. Van Brunt said that some years ago, at his home, a 

 plant of Oleander, growing in a tub filled with earth, was 

 brought in the house Over night for protection from sudden cold. 

 On the next morning many delicate tubes were found hanging 

 in festoons from the edge of the tub to the floor. These tubes 

 were doubtless the work of our native Termites. 



Mr. J. L. Zabriskie said that the main portion of the old 

 house in which he was born at Flatbush, Long Island, was 

 built of brick, imported from Holland ; that it endured for over 

 one hundred and fifty years, and was demolished in 1877. 

 During his boyhood he was frequently interested in examining, 

 in certain little used portions of the cellar of the old house, the 

 work of insects, consisting of tubes of varying length hanging in 

 mid-air from the large floor-beams overhead. The tubes 

 appeared to be made from pellets of the softened exterior of 

 the beams. Whitish insects with brown heads could be seen 

 working at the lower open ends of the tubes. He had preserved 

 such a tube, about one foot long and of the diameter of a cedar 

 lead-pencil, for over a dozen years, pinned in an insect case. 

 These tubes were doubtless the work of our native Termes 

 fluvipes, Kollar. 



The thanks of the Society were tendered Mr. Beaumont for 

 his interesting observations and descriptions. 



Meeting of January 4th, 1889. 

 The President, Mr. Charles F. Cox, in the chair. 

 Forty-one persons present. 



Mr. William Lummis was elected a Resident Member of the 

 Society. 



