15 



agencies and humidity tlian vegetable cords, and of which the price would not exceed 

 the requirements of its utility. The spider's silk can be used to supply this want, in- 

 asmuch as ail hot countries would very soon furnish an important quantity of the rough 

 produce for the requirements of this new industry. We should remember, in this ex- 

 pectation, the predilection of the spider for inhabited places, and its harmlessuess to the 

 trees where it establishes itself. Besides, its enemies, the musquitoes and flies, are also 

 ours, and it is in order to free us from them that it loves to be in our neighbourhood, 

 which is shunned by other animals in a state of nature. This consideration is not so tri- 

 fling as might be thought : the spiders distributed among the ornamental trees that sur- 

 round habitations would do much to abate this nuisance in hot and moist countries. 

 M. Margain put a spider upon a young Baobab in his court-yard, and he could tell you 

 the result of this experiment. The silk of the cocoon, by its durability and the bright- 

 ness of its pale colour, might be employed in fabricating peculiar ornamental stuff, 

 which would be difficult to imitate: the winding off" would not be difficult, since the 

 smallness of the meshes of the net-work that it forms is opposed to that in which the 

 spider has been able to entangle its threads in passing to the centre. If the Epeira is 

 reared in sight of the cocoon it will compensate for the drawbacks of a small yield, the 

 space occupied, and the special difiiculties of winding, by the beauty of the produce, 

 the quickness of realisation (three or four days), and the absence of care and food 

 during the continuance of the work. The silk of the spider of Gabon excels that of 

 Senegal by the beauty of its deeper colour and by its elasticity, which are in harmony 

 with the frequency and force of the rains of the country. I steeped a piece of the 

 sample I collected in a concentrated solution of azotic acid, without the consistency 

 or the colour being altered: I have not found this spider in society, but it is in the 

 neighbourhood of man, in the garden of M. Reston, an American Missionary, at 

 Bakele, that I gathered the sample in question." 



June 2, 1856. 

 W. Wilson Saundees, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Donations. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 

 donors: — 'An Introduction to Entomology, or Elements of the Natural History of 

 Insects,' by the Rev. William Kirby, M.A., F.R.S., &c., and William Spence, Esq., 

 F.R.S., &c., 7th edition; presented by W. Spence, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 'On 

 the Variation of Species with especial reference to the Insecta, followed by an Inquiry 

 into the Nature of Genera,' by T. Vernon Wollaston, M.A., F.L.S. ; by the Author. 

 'A Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, being a Systematic and Popular Descrip- 

 tion of the Habits, Structure and Classification of Animals,' by W. S. Dallas, Esq., 

 F.L.S. , &c. ; by the Author. ' Third Report of the Commissioners for the Exhibition 

 of 1851;' by Her Majesty's Commissioners. 'Proceedings of the Royal Society,' 

 Vol. viii. No. 20; by the Society. 'Revue et Magasin de Zoologie,' 1856, No. 4 ; 



