March nth, igo/.] PROCEEDINGS. xxxi 



Mr. Henry Hyde submitted specimens of Sagittaria 

 lancifolia from the West Indies, and of Gasionia palniata from 

 the East Indies. 



Mr. J. Fenwick Allen explained the uses and manufacture 

 of the following metals, illustrating the same by examples, viz. : — 

 silicon, metallic manganese, chromium, ferrotitan, and silicon 

 copper containing 25 % of silicon. 



Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill, M.A., exhibited Tasmanian 

 examples of the rare and beautiful alga, Claudea elegans, Lam. 



Mr. Charles Bailey brought a series of examples of a 

 somewhat rare mint, which he had had in cultivation for many 

 years in his garden at Ashfield, Whalley Range, and which Dr. 

 John Briquet, of Geneva, had recently identified as Meiitha 

 genii! is, L., var. HacJienbrruhii, Briq. 



Mr. Peter Cameron sent specimens oi Sphex flavovestita, 

 from Borneo, illustrating its habits. He considered this insect 

 to be but a form of the common Indian species Sphex aurulentiis. 

 All the species of Sphex have the same habits ; they feed their 

 young with grasshoppers, which they store in their cell-shaped 

 nests. The peculiarity of their method of providing food for 

 their young consists in the fact that the grasshoppers are not 

 killed, but merely benumbed and rendered motionless by three 

 pricks of the ovipositor — one in the neck, one in the joint 

 between the meso- and metathorax, and one in the base of the 

 abdomen, the seat of the nerve ganglions. The consequence is 

 that the grasshopper does not die and decay, but remains fresh 

 for weeks until its time comes to be devoured by the larva of 

 the Sphex. Three or four grasshoppers are put in each cell for 

 one larva, and some species store up as many as too for their 

 entire brood, the whole process taking about one month. 



Chlorion lobatum, of which specimens were also sent, has 

 similar habits. 



