Royal Society. — Linncean Society. 299 



distinguished botanist, which we may consider to be intended as some 

 atonement for the illiberal insult offered to him in a former Number, and 

 which we have had occasion to reprehend (Phil. Mag. vol. lxii. p. 303). 

 " It is with pleasure we find the consummate talents, sagacity, and in- 

 dustry, with which M. Decandolle is indisputably endowed, directed to an 

 object that they may accomplish to the great advantage of science, instead 

 of struggling with impossibilities ; and we congratulate our readers on the 

 appearance of the first volume of the Prodromus of a general system, in 

 which the known species will find a place in their respective divisions, with 

 only a short notice of the distinctions, and one or two select synonyms." 

 — Portulaca pilosa. , 



LI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



Apr. 1. — HPHE reading was commenced of " An Inquiry re- 

 ■*■ specting the Nature of the luminous Power of 

 some of the Lampyrides : L. splendilula, or Glow-worm ; L. 

 halica, or Fire-fly; and L. noctiluca ;" by Tweedie John 

 Todd, M.D. Communicated by Sir E. Home, V.P.R.S. 



April 8. — The reading of Dr. Todd's paper was resumed 

 and concluded; and a paper by Capt. Sabine, F.R.S., was 

 read, containing a Comparison of the Geometrical and Baro- 

 metrical Methods of determining Heights, as applied to a Hill 

 at Spitzbergen. 



The Society then adjourned to April 29th. 



LINN^AN SOCIETY. 



April 6. — A letter from the Rev. William Whitear, M.A. 

 F.L.S. of Starston, Norfolk, communicated the information 

 that a Little Bustard had been shot by Mr. Skipper, of Little 

 Clacton, Essex, in December last ; remarking it as an extra- 

 ordinary fact, that this bird, an inhabitant of a Southern cli- 

 mate, should have been found in this country in a hard winter. 



The reading was commenced of a Description and Account 

 of a Collection of Arctic Plants formed by Captain Sabine 

 during a voyage in the Polar Seas in the year 1823; by 

 VV. J. Hooker, LL.D. F.R.S. Professor of Botany in the 

 University of Glasgow ; communicated by the Council of the 

 Horticultural Society. 



April 20. — Some sections of fir timber were exhibited by 

 Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, Bart. F.R. & L.S. perforated to a 

 great depth by the Sirex juve?icus, together with specimens of 

 this insect, from the woods of the Earl of Stradbroke at Hen- 

 ham Hall in the county of Suffolk, where two hundred Scotch 

 firs have been already destroyed, being bored through and 

 through by it. 



Pp2 The 



