THE FORMATION OF LOCAL MUSEUMS. 33 



at times inserting his nose, twelve inches long and nearly 

 one eighth of an inch thick into the nectary, drawing 

 away the pollen clubs, fan-shaped in this case, and going on 

 to fertilize other like flowers. Does it not sound like an 

 uneasy dream? These moths have not yet been seen, but 

 there are the flowers and there the moths must be, and by the 

 time the Tananarivo branch of the Natural History Society 

 of Madagascar is holding its third Monthly Ramble, we may 

 hope that the moths will have been f6und, and specimens 

 of them deposited in the Folkestone Museum. 



jThe formation of local museums. 



Read hefwe the Society, October lith, 1868. 



As we have now to some extent come to the close of the 

 first working year of our Society, it might be expected that 

 1 should give a sort of resume of what we have done. That, 

 however, is not my purpose this evening. I want to speak to 

 you on a subject closely connected with the well-being of the 

 Society, which will tend to give it an interest in the eyes of 

 individual members greater than can be given by anything 

 else, and which, moreover, ought to present even greater 

 attractions to the visitors, who are, year by year, increasing in 

 numbers, as year by year it grows in completeness and in 

 importance. I mean the formation of a Local Museum. 



Before going further into this matter, I must say a few words 

 as to what we have been doing in connection with this subject 

 and what we have to do. We have had several most pleasant 

 and well attended rambles, at which, under the direction of 

 those better instructed than ourselves, we have learned to see 



the Death's Head, with much longer trunks than it possesses. We believe 

 there are specimens of the Madagascar Moth referred to in the British 

 Museum, and that they are of very moderate size. — Ed. 

 £ 



