340 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



attacked the tree, and now, when it has attacked the tree 

 there are no acorns produced. Slill in a physiological point 

 of view the former is right, as I conceive it to be. Physiolo- 

 gically we know that most of our fruits are metamorphosed 

 wood-buds, or swollen calyces, &c. ; but, as this is not a 

 treatise on vegetable physiology, we need not go into that." 

 —Edward Parjitt ; in 'Field' of December 28, 1872. 



[It is a source of peculiar pleasure to me to find an 

 experienced entomologist like Mr. Parfitt giving even a 

 qualified assent to a proposition that appears so opposed to 

 what we have been accustomed to regard as the order which 

 Nature ought to observe. It is to the patient, pains-taking 

 disciple that Nature reveals all her secrets ; and it is ever the 

 pleasure of such disciples to sit attentive at her feet and 

 listen to her teachings. Mr. Inchbald, in the discussion to 

 which Mr. Parfitt alludes, has set forth observations and 

 difficulties that have occurred to all of us. 1 have always 

 seen that the bearing of acorns on these younger shoots is not 

 the course that the oak takes by choice; nor is it the course 

 which the learned would prescribe for her; and in this con- 

 sists the great interest of the case. It is evident that by the 

 introduction of a foreign element the oak can be compelled 

 to adopt a course equally foreign to her custom. 1 have 

 pointed out siuiilar aberrant proceedings on the partof Pyrus 

 japonica, which at the bidding of a minute insect, a mere 

 touch on its accidentally-exposed roots, produces bright red 

 blossoms in that strange situation ; also on the part of the 

 pear, forced into bearing by the insidious dealing of the larva 

 of Zeuzera iEsculi with its solid wood; and again with the 

 apple, obeying, with obvious reluctance, the command of 

 Sesia myopaeformis to produce apples in the most unlikely 

 situations and at the most improper seasons. Such pro- 

 ceedings are now established as facts, but certainly facts 

 not dreamed of in our philosophy. — Eduard Newman.^ 



Seliing Lepidoptera. — I am going to commence collecting 

 again, and wish to know whether you would recommend me 

 to set flat or round. 1 incline to flat setting. It is what 

 nearly everyone would do if not shown round setting, and 

 were unbiassed by custom and the force of imitation. It is 

 more natural; it is simpler; the boards are more easily 

 made ; and the having the wings well raised above the cork 



