68 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



trials I adopted the following plan. I left the cone or cones 

 attached to a small piece of the branch which bore them. 

 Having filled a number of glass jars (7 inches high by about 

 3 inches in diameter) with water, I corked them with large 

 flat corks in which I had bored holes. Through each hole 

 I thrust the piece of branch which bore the cones, so that the 

 cut end of the branch dipped into the water of the jar. 



Several such jars with their cone-bearing branches I placed 

 on a large square board, which carried several inches of soil. 

 Into the soil I fixed stakes, and then enclosed all in a large 

 covering of thin muslin. The stakes supported the muslin 

 like a tent. Into the large free space I introduced some 

 living notatus of both sexes. These beetles were introduced 

 on 7th June. 



Occasionally further to prevent too rapid drying of the 

 cones, I watered them overhead, and I always took care that 

 the cut ends of the branches remained sunk in the water, by 

 refilling the jars as they lost water by transpiration or by 

 evaporation. 



The little tent I kept in a glass-house at the Eoyal 

 Botanic Garden. The door of the house always stood open, 

 and the house was never artificially heated. I was afraid to 

 leave the tent exposed in the open, in case the wind should 

 play havoc with the experiment. 



Now and again on examination I noticed the beetles alive, 

 and the characteristic proboscis punctures on twig and cone 

 both, gave evidence of their feeding. 



On 30th August I removed all the branches from the jars, 

 and pulled off the cones. The pulled-off cones were placed 

 under a bell-jar. They had quite lost their green colour 

 and looked dry. 



On dissecting away the bark from the twigs to which the 

 cones had been attached, it was interesting to me to find a 

 number of notatus larvae and pupa?, proving that at any rate 

 the notatus had bred. In quite a number of cases these larvae 

 and pupae were below the water-line. The twigs had been 

 dipping well into the water, and the grubs in their tunnellings 

 had gone downwards, so that they were feeding and pupai 

 lying in beds below water. 



