Linnean Society. 275 
pear are instanced as illustrating the mode of growth in annual 
plants ; (page 41) the holly is called a shrub ; (page 43) the snow- 
drop is instanced as having a solitary flower on a stalk called a scape, 
in which we think that we see two errors, since a scape often bears 
more than one flower, and the snowdrop has several flowers. At 
page 98, line 3, we fancy that “ figure” is put for “ Fig.”’ ‘ In the 
different kinds of clover we meet with spikes, umbels and capitules ”’ 
(p. 99); we doubt the correctness of this statement. Sepals is put 
for petals on page 131 at line 11. . 
There are a few other similar instances of inadvertence, but their 
very insignificance shows how little there is to which to except in 
the book, which we cannot too strongly recommend to our readers. 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
LINNAEAN SOCIETY. 
Dec. 19, 1848.-—The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 
Mr. Adam White, F.L.S., exhibited three curious species of He- 
miptera beionging to the genera Scaptocoris and Petalochirus. He 
made some remarks on fossorial insects in general, illustrating them 
with specimens of a New Zealand Mole-Cricket and of a new genus 
of Carabidae, allied to Scarites. He particularly described a new spe- 
cies of Scaptecoris (S. Amyoti) from Northern India, remarkable in- 
asmuch as it forms a second distinct species of a very striking genus 
hitherto known to occur only in Brazil (S. castaneus, Perty). 
Read a paper, entitled ‘“ Experiments and Observations on the 
Poison of Animals of the Order Araneidea.” By John Blackwall, Esq., 
F.L.S. &c. 
After referring to the fabulous accounts of the singular effects said 
to be produced in the human species by the bite of the Tarantula, and of 
the serious and sometimes fatal consequences attributed to that of the 
Malmignatte, Mr. Blackwall proceeds to consider the validity of an 
opinion prevalent among arachnologists of the present day, that in- 
sects pierced by the fangs of spiders die almost instantaneously. He 
states that in the summer of 1846 he commenced an experimental 
investigation of the subject, the particulars of which he commu- 
nicates, arranging his experiments under four distinct heads, corre- 
sponding to the objects upon which they were made, namely the 
human species, spiders, insects, and inanimate substances. The ex- 
periments are detailed at length, and the following are the principal 
results. 
First, as regards the effect of the bite of spiders upon the human 
species. ‘The species selected was Kpeira Diadema, and Mr. Black- 
wall states the legitimate conclusion deducible from various expe- 
riments to be, that there is nothing to apprehend from the bite of the 
most powerful British spiders, even when inflicted at a moment of 
extreme irritation and in hot sultry weather, the pain occasioned by 
