MONTHLY SUMMARY. 573 



LXVIII.— MONTHLY SUMMARY. 



September 1, 1862. 

 Proceedings in August— Little \\'ortby of notice lias taken 



place this month. A meeting for the election of Fellows and a 

 ballot for plants have been the only special business, the results 

 of which will be found recorded at pages 631 aud 632, The 

 system of allowing visitors from the Exhibition to return to it with- 

 out repayment has worked well for the receipts of the Society. 



Subscription for French Fonntains, &c. — In last month's 



Proceedings it was announced that a circular would be issued 

 to the Fellows, inviting them to contribute to form a fund for the 

 purchase of one of the fountains or some of the bronzes now ex- 

 hibited in the garden, A number of subscriptions have been 

 already announced, varying in amount from lOZ. to 10s, The 

 smallest sum that will be required for the purchase of the smallest 

 of the fountains is 3500Z., so that more than ordinary zeal will 

 be necessary to raise a suf&cient sum. 



Cochineal Insect, — A fine large plant of the Mexican Cactus, 

 covered with numbers of the living cochineal insect, from the 

 Canary Islands, has been presented by George Swanston, Esq., 

 and is exhibited in the Conservatory, This is a commercial pro- 

 duct introduced into the Canary Isles only of late years. When 

 the vine disease, following on the footsteps of the potatoe disease, 

 destroyed the vines in tbat as in many other wine countries, the 

 cultivators found themselves all at once cut off from their usual 

 source of income, and were compelled to look for some other 

 crop to supply the place of the vines ; for even although they 

 could have relied on a fresh crop of vine-trees escaping the dis- 

 ease which had destroyed the previous trees, a good many years 

 must have elapsed before the vines would have been in full-bearing 

 condition. ' Few of the proprietors were in such circumstances as 

 to be able to wait for a long series of years before drawing some at 

 least, if not the usual, return from their land. They therefore 

 looked out for some other <m)p to cultivate. In some countries they 

 took to wheat and other cereals. The inhabitants of TeneriflFe 

 turned their attention to the growth of the cochineal insect, a 



branch of commerce previously confined to Mexico. The insect 

 VOL. n, R B 



