March 13, 1866. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



201 



word change on the scale (29.50). He then visits a friend who 

 lives in a house situated at a much higher elevation than his 

 own. Passing through the hall he sees a barometer reading 

 considerably lower than his did. Perhaps he calls the atten- 

 tion of his friend to this fact ; the person thus appealed to 

 says his instrument is right, and accordingly the other thinks 

 to himself, "Both cannot be right ; " and yet both are right. 

 What is change (29.50) at sea-level will become rain (29.00) 

 about .500 feet higher than sea-level, because one-tenth of an inch 

 must always be added to the- readings of a barometer for every 

 100 feet the instrument is placed above sea-level. Your 

 readers may say, " We do not know the height we are situated 

 above sea-level, and how can we find out ? " The answer to such 

 an inquiry is to be found on the ordnance map, where the 

 height at which different localities are situated above the sea- 

 level is clearly marked out and defined. 



From what has been just remarked it will be at once per- 

 ceived that there is a disadvantage in the use of the words 

 fair, change, &c. Why should an observer who hves some 

 100 feet above sea-level be obliged to remember that on his 

 glass change does not mean change, but fair ? Now, in baro- 

 meters without these words, although of course an observer at 

 a lower station would find a difference when comparing the 

 readings of his instrument with those taken by one at a higher 

 level, there would not be that discrepancy in the words just 

 alluded to, and I apprehend that a person who has in his 

 possession a barometer on whiph these words are omitted pays 

 more attention to the rise and fall of the mercury, and makes 

 his own deductions more accurately, than others who are mis- 

 led by the words previously referred to. 



Assuming in the next place that an observer knows the 

 height at which he is situated above sea-level, and therefore 

 in his readings of the barometer makes the proper allowance 

 for such elevation, why is it that the words fair, &c., are liable 

 to mislead him, and to become a stumbling block to his know- 

 ledge of weather ? The reason is as follows : — A barometer is 

 never to be judged by its readings at the moment of observa- 

 tion, when any one wishes to know the probable weather which 

 may be expected at that time. The instrument, as a rule, is 

 always beforehand, and does not tell present weather. Weather 

 wisdom is attained by looking at the previous movements of 

 the column, and accordingly if the mercury has risen to fair, 

 but the rise has been very sudden, or the barometer has oscil- 

 lated to or from that point for the last few days, heavy and un- 

 settled weather may be expected. However, the bad weather 

 will not be so long in duration with a high barometer as it 

 would have been had the glass been very low for some days. 

 On the other hand, the column steadily rising towards fan- 

 does show settled and fine weather, and in that case the 

 words fair and set fair on the scale of an instrument at sea- 

 level, or reduced by correction to that level, are reaUy right. 

 I would ask your readers. Is it not better to pay no attention to 

 words which have a double signification, and do most un- 

 doubtedly mislead the inexperienced?" Doubtless many per- 

 sons know of instances where an umbrella is never taken out 

 of a stand when the glass is above change, and what is the re- 

 sult ? — vei-y often a severe wetting ; the barometer is blamed, 

 but who, I ask, is really to blame ? Again, has the science of 

 weather taken deep root in a family where such remarks as 

 the following are heard ? — "My barometer is rising fast, and 

 we shall have fine weather," when the present state of weather 

 wisdom suggests the very opposite — viz., imsettled and change- 

 able weather. — X., Surrcij. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S MEETINGS. 



The Anniversary Meeting of tliis Society was held on the 22nd of 

 January, F. P. Pascoe, Es(|., F.L.S., President, in the chau-, when 

 the appointment of the Couucil and Officers for the ensuing year took 

 place, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.K.S., being elected President; Mr. 

 Pascoe's teiTQ of office having expired. The other oificers were re- 

 elected. 



The President announced that the Council's offer of prizes to be 

 nwarded to the anthors of essays on economic Entomology, had 

 produced three competitors, and that the Coancil had awarded one of 

 the prizes, of the value of live guineas, for an Essay on Ailanthi 

 culture, the author of which proved to be Dr. Wallace, of Colchester, 

 and in which an elaborate account was given, from personal experience, 

 of the Ailanthus Silk Moth (Satnmia Cynthia), tlie practicabibty of 

 the cultivation of which, as well as of that of the Ailanthus tree itself 

 in the most unpromising situations, was fully demonstrated. The 

 President, before leaving the chair, read an address on the progress of 



' entomology during the past year, which, as well as Dr. Wallace 

 memoir, was ordered to he printed for distribution among the members. 

 The meeting held on the 5th of FebruaiT was presided over by 

 Sir .John Lubbock, the newly-elected President, who retnraed thanks 

 for his election, and nominated Messrs. Wilson Saunders, Pascoe, 

 and Wcstwood, Vice-Presidents for the ensuing year. Amongst the 

 numerous donations to the Society's library, were the publications of the 

 Entomological Societies of New'South Wales (Part 4), and of Stettin. 

 The prize awarded by the Couucil to Dr. Wallace, for his memoir on 

 AUanthi culture, was presented to that gentleman, who, in returning 

 thanks, stated that the cultivation both of the Ailanthus tree and of 

 the Silk Moth itself, appeared to be even more flourishing in this 

 couutiy than in France, where it has now become an object of much 

 importance. The President announced that the Council had deter- 

 mined to renew their offer of two prizes of tivo guineas each, for 

 memoirs of sufficient merit, and di-awn up from personal observatioQ, 

 on the anatomy, economy, or habits of any insect, or group of insects, 

 especially serviceable or obnoxious to mankind. The essays to be sent 

 to the Secretaij on or before the iJOth of November, 1866. " M. Gaerin 

 Mcueville, of JParis ; and M. Bohemann, of Stockholm, were elected 

 honorary members of the Society. 



Mr. McLnchbm exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Doiwille, Stei"rha sac- 

 raria, captured near Exeter, and a number of remarkable varieties of 

 British species of Butterflies and Moths, including a gigantic CjTithia 

 Cardui, or Painted-lady Bntterfly, Hipparchia Tithonus, with an ad- 

 ditional ocellus, Agrotis Segetum, nearly black, &c. 



Mr. S. Stevens exhibited the male of PapUio Semperi, remarkable 

 as being the only known Lepidopterous insect with a brilliant scarlet 

 body and jet black wings. It is a native of Mindanao in the Philippine 

 Islands. 



Professor Westwood exhibited a pan- of the Dog-tick, which he had 

 kept without food in a glass tube for twelve months, having been a 

 portion of the specimens presented by Major Cox to the Society in 

 February, 1865 ; shortly afterwards a number of young ones were 

 observed in the tube, which, however, soon died, but the tube wag now 

 again thronged with young in the hexapod state, but the female was 

 no longer alive. He also exhibited the interesting larva of Tipula 

 replicata, found in damp moss by Mr. Edwin Brown, of Burton, re- 

 markable for the strong' analogy wbioh it exhibits in the long branchial 

 filaments upon the sides and back of its body, with the aquatic larvae 

 of the Neuropterous genus Sialis, and the Lepidopterous genus 

 Hydrocampa. 



Mr. Wilson Saunders exhibited a veiy extensive and beautiful series 

 of Butterflies belonging to the genus Hehconia, which had been 

 captured in a siu'^'le locality in Cayenne, and which varied to so great 

 a degi'ee, both in their markings and colours, as to have been regarded 

 as a number of tbstinct species, but which Mr. Saunders considered 

 were only varieties of a single species, Heliconia Melpomene. This 

 exhibition led to au extensive discussion on the geographical range of 

 the species, and on the effects of situation on the modiflcation of the 

 specific characters of the insect, in which Mr. Bates stated that he 

 had taken nearly all these varieties on the Amazon, and that he was 

 induced to consider, that in cci-tain localities the species appeared to 

 be constant in its colours and markings, but that in the hilly districts 

 of Guiana the species was subject to endless variation, whilst else- 

 where it appeared to resolve itself into three distinct variations, which 

 had been named H. Melpomene, HeUxiope, aud Vesta. He had suc- 

 ceeded in breeding H. Erato, aud had found its catei-pillars to be 

 gi-egarious. 



The President exhibited magnified coloured di-awings of two curious 

 larvffl of unlcnown forms. 



Mr. F. Smith communicated a note from Mr. Heni'y Doubleday, in 

 which the doubts expressed by the fonner at a previous meeting, as to 

 the origin of the tapping noise often heard in old houses, alleged to be 

 made by the Death Watch, Anobium striatum, were completely dis- 

 proved, Mr. Doubleday having repeatedly obsen'ed that insect m the 

 act of making the noise in question, by .striking its head against the 

 surface upou which it was standing. He had kept the insect in confine- 

 ment and could make it reply by tapping any hard material with a 

 pencil. 



Mr. Wallace mentioned, that in repairing an old church at Col- 

 chester, the Oak beams on the south side of the roof were chiefly 

 attacked by the Anobium. 



Mr. Stainton annoimced the death of Senator Van Hyden, one of 



the oldest and best entomologists of Germany, and the aiTival of Mr. 



WoUaston, on an entomological excursion to the Cape de Verd Islands. 



Memoirs were read by Mr. Bates on new Phytophagous Beetles ; 



and by Mr. Hewitson on new species of Hesperidan Butterflies. 



NOTES ON THE SPECIES OF HELLEBORUS. 



(Continued from page 145.) 

 Helleborus olympicus, Lindley (The Olympic Hellebore). 

 — Syn. H. guttatus, of gardens ; H. colchicus, of gardens ; 

 H. olympicus albus, of gardens ; H. abchasicus, Fischer. The 

 radical leaves of this species are palmate, with the segments 

 oblong-linear and toothed on the margins, except near the 

 base, which is entire. The floral leaves are large, stalkless, 



