d3 



until a corresponding time of the next year ? or will the species like some 

 of those I have mentioaecl, decay into a singlo-brooded insect ? The 

 present collecting season (one not unlike last year, in bad qualities) has 

 answered the fii-st two questions in the negative. The first brood of 

 adonis has been conspicuous by its absence, being noticed indeed at only 

 one sheltered spot near Dover, and the autumnal flight is very limited in 

 point of numbers. Time must show whether we shall lose the species 

 altogether, but I believe the future of this beautiful member of the family 

 has been foreshadowed for some years, and the downward path has been 

 entered upon. There will be an occasional reaction, but the end is sure ; 

 it might be represented by a zigzag or spiral line fi'om the ceiling to the 

 floor sometimes going a little upwards, but gradually tending downwards. 



Now blue butterflies rank next to bees as fertilisers of the orchids, 

 and pollen masses may as frequently be seen attached to them, though 

 I doubt if they are so often got rid of legitimately. With the removal 

 of fertilization one of the sources of perpetuation is destroyed, and with 

 their loss we shall lose much, for who can tell how many ardent botanists 

 have been led into their favorite pursuit by adniii'ation for these curious 

 and beautiful flowers. With the loss of small flies and hymenoptera we 

 shall lose more ; and should single broods of insects become the universal 

 rule, although such change be only a gradual one at first, a very rapid 

 decrease will be observed in the flora of the country. Botanical specimens 

 common now must become rare or even extinct, and in spite of self fertiliz- 

 ing flowers a climacteric will be reached which A\dll need, figuratively, but 

 the slightest touch rather than a disruptive convulsion to overturn the 

 present state of things altogether. Some will no doubt survive, like 

 the giant sponges of the Norfolk chalk sea, or the modern representatives 

 of the lily encrites — but unless special adaptation to circumstances should 

 affect the masses of created life, in a comparatively short geological space 

 of time, even by natural means, there will be, at least from a naturalist's 

 point of view, a new earth ; without cataclysmatic or volcanic agency 

 being necessary to effect such an end. 



XXV. 



HIBEENATIO^ AND HIBERNATING CREATURES. 



Extracts of Paper 



BY 



MR. SYDNEY WEBB, 

 Read at Dover, March, 1890. 

 Having referred to the various hypotheses of the last century, as to 

 what became of swallows and other birds duiing wiuter, and expfctined 

 the phenomena which so completely puzzled good old Gilbert White, 

 author of the Natural History of Selborne, he divided hibernating 

 animals into three groups : — those that spend the winter in a completely 

 torpid or somnolent condition ; those that awaken from time to time, to 

 doze off again ; and those that accumulate a store of provisions for 

 winter or spring use. 



