XVlll PROCKKDINUS OK THE 



borne a considerable distance on the wind. Mr. Cameron's 

 own observations led him to infer that the turnip and man- 

 gold fields were the chief sources from whence the swarms 

 were derived. He stated that this insect had occm-red in 

 prodigious numbers on former occasions in England as re- 

 corded by Gilbert White, as well as in Belgium, where it 

 spread in immense swarms in 1884. A. dianthi feeds on a 

 large number of plants. About sixty species are known to 

 be subject to its attacks, and even the poisonous Atropa 

 Belladonna, L., is not passed over. It is injurious to many 

 field and garden plants and fruit-trees, the damage inflicted 

 being in proportion to the comparative abundance of the insect. 

 Not tmfrequently, when aphides are excessively numerous, the 

 Ladybirds (Coccinella) which feed on them are also abundant; 

 but no unusual quantity of these useful creatures was noticed 

 last autumn, although a species of Aphidius, an ichneumon 

 w^hich destroys aphides, was exceedingly ijlentiful. 



27th Dkcembeb, 1888. 



Mr. Thomas King, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Thomas D. Gibson-Carmichael, M.A., F.L.S., Chiefs- 

 wood, Melrose, was elected a Corresponding Member. 



The following were elected Ordinary Members : Professor 

 Henry Drummond, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., 3 Park Circus; Dr. J. 

 Yule Mackay, 34 Elmbank Crescent ; Dr. J. Cowan Woodburn, 

 197 Bath Street ; Mr. Willian^ Finlayson, 4 Bowmont Gardens, 

 Hillhead. 



The following were elected Associates : Mr. P. Wilson, 

 Fisheries Office, Girvan ; Miss E. Kalleaberg, 28 Belhaven 

 Terrace, Kelvinside ; Mr. Archibald E. Robertson, 8 Hillhead 

 Gardens; Mr. Alexander Taylor, 26 Granby Terrace, Hillhead. 



Mr. A. Somerville, B.Sc, F.L.S., Convener of the Lectures 

 Committee, reported that the second Lecture of the course 

 had been delivered on 11th inst. by Professor Isaac Bayley 

 Balfour, M.A., M.D., D.Sc, F.R.S., Edinburgh University, the 

 subject being "Some Plant Parasites." The Lecture, which was 

 illustrated with models, diagrams, and lime-light views, was 

 presided over by Sir James Bain, F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S. 



Mr. Somerville submitted the Report of a Committee ap- 

 pointed at last meeting to look out for a suitable investment 

 for the funds derived from Life-Members' subscriptions, to the 

 effect that after private inquiries independently conducted 

 by Members of Committee, all which afforded the most satis- 

 factory evidence of the stability of the proposed investment, it 

 had been unanimously decided to recommend that ilOO, or 

 such sum as may at present be available, be invested on 



