163 



segments, shedding its spores, and producing tlie appear- 

 ance to which he had referred. 



The Chairman referred to an account which had been 

 given of the destruction of silk-worms in the Sandwich 

 Islands by something of the same kind. It was a very 

 common disease in flies. 



Mr. James Yates, F.R.S., spoke of a caterpillar, from 

 Australia, which had a fungus growing out of it, 



Mr. HiGGiNS remarked, that the same thing occurred in 

 this country ; and if people would only study nature 

 around them they would see things quite as extraordinary 

 and every whit as beautiful as those which excited so 

 much surprise when they came from abroad. Returning 

 to the subject, he would observe that the practical infer- 

 ence to be derived from his paper, Avas that bee-keepers 

 should avoid placing bees again in a room where fungi 

 had made their appearance ; from the myriads of spores 

 which they gave out, it would be certain destruction to 

 the insects to do so. 



Mr. Yates believed that essential oil was an effectual 

 preservative. Virgil recommended it in the fourth 

 Georgic. 



The following paper was then read — On the 



FLORA AND FAUNA OF GEOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. 



By GEORGE H. MORTON, F.G.S. 



The intention of this communication is to present an 

 epitome of the classes of the vegetable and animal king- 

 doms, as they occur through successive geological 

 systems; and to bring under conKidcration those classes 

 which occur in the most ancient deposits, with the subse- 

 quent introduction of others, in the strata of the British 

 Islands. 



