17 



plants which exlialocT most, and the guard 

 cells, which closed, if, while the plant was 

 exhaling, it was removed from the snn into 

 the dark. The next puzzle was the mode of 

 descent, the course of which was by the 

 Ccuiihrlan layer, some thought by endosmose 

 from cell to cell. 



An evening for specimens, when there were 

 exhibited, by Dr. Hallifax, a collection of 

 insects from Ceylon, among the most remark- 

 able of which were Mantis religiosa, which, 

 from the peculiar appearance of its formidable 

 prehensile organs, with which it mangles the 

 bodies of its insect prey, has, in all countries 

 where found, been regarded by the inhabi- 

 tants as a pious insect; FJinsnia fi-aijUis, 

 phantom or walking stick insect, which 

 exactly resembles the dried twig of a tree, 

 and some very brilliant beetles. A peculiar 

 palate, said to be of a sea horse (?) by Mr 

 Penley, skull of a dolphin by Mr Dennant, 

 larvas of hornet, clear wing moth (specia 

 apiformis) at work in some willow stumps, 

 and a cherry gall, from which had come, the 

 day before, an insect which, while it resem- 

 bled the gall-fly in appearance, was certainly 

 not a female. In activity and position in the 

 gall, near the surface, it seemed like the case 

 given by Mr Eobertson, and curiously, in the 

 centre, was still to be seen a fully-formed 

 grub of a gall-fly. He pronounced no opinion 

 upon it, but wished the members to see it 

 alive, and then to examme it under the 

 microscope, Upon examination it proved to 

 be a male irhneiiinoii, and strange to relate. 



