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November 7th, 1900. 

 Mr. G. H. Yerrall, President, in the Chair. 



Flection of Fellows. 

 Dr. John Cottox, of 126, Prescot Road, St. Helen's; Mr. 

 Georgr H. Howes, of Spay Street, Invercargill, New Zealand ; 

 the Hon. F. JNI. Mackwood, M.I.C, of Colombo, Ceylon ; Mr. 

 William J. Painbuw, of the Australian Museum, Sydney ; 

 and Mr. Percy Charles Reid, of Peering Bury, Kelvedon, 

 Essex, were elected Fellows of the Society. 



F.vhihitions, etc. 



Mr. George S. Saunders exhibited specimens, from Devon- 

 shire, of Pier is rapiv and Phma gamma caught by the proboscis 

 in flowers of Aranjia alhens, Don., a climbing plant of the 

 natural order AsclepiaJacea' ; and explained the nature of the 

 mechanism by means of which the insects were entrapped by 

 the flowers. He also showed specimens of the " bedeguar " 

 gall formed apparently on the " iiips," or fruit, of Fosa canina. 

 They were taken from a small briar about four feet high, 

 having more than 30 of these galls, which was growing on the 

 top of the North Downs near Reigate. The formation of the 

 galls on the hips was considered to be unusual. 



Mr. Gahan remarked that the statement met with in some 

 text-books to the effect that insects were only captux-ed by 

 Aratijia alhens in countries where this plant was introduced 

 and not in its native country, was wrong. The specimens 

 exhibited by Mr. Janson at a meeting of the Society last year 

 came from Buenos Ayres, one of its native places. The subject 

 had recently been investigated in France by MM. Marchand and' 

 Bonjour, who gave an account of it in the "Bulletin de la Soc, 

 des Sciences Nat. de I'Ouest de la France," for 1899. These 

 authors concluded that insects were captured only by immature 

 flowers, the anther-wings, in the cleft between which the 

 proboscis of the insect is caught, being at that time stiff and 

 resistant; but when the flowers are ripe the anther- wings 

 become less rigid and do not offer suflicient resistance to the 

 withdrawal of the proboscis, which carries with it the pollinia 



