Dr. A. Smith on the Influence of Light on Vegetation. 151 



of seed was made in any (juantity till Jeft'iey sent home some packages 

 in 1852. These proved all bad, and apparently had suffered from the 

 ravages of an insect. Mr. Beardsley and my brother next sent a 

 quantity in 1854, and I noticed the fact that in almost every cone of 

 P. nohilis, the seeds were being eaten by a small caterpillar. My 

 brother had found these caterpillars in the green as well as in the 

 mature cone, their eggs evidently having been deposited in the kernel 

 while the cone was yet soft and easily penetrated. One or two sub- 

 sequent importations of seed proved to be also to a greater or less 

 extent infested by an insect. I have bred the insect, and find that 

 it belongs to the genus Megastiymus, one of the Chalcidites. Out 

 of hundreds of insects which I have seen developed from the cones 

 of Picea nohilis, I never saw any other species, except one small 

 moth. In the April Number of the ' Zoologist,' Mr. Parfitt has 

 named the insect Megastigmics Pini. He has described only the 

 female, not having seen the male. I obtained specimens of both, 

 which I have placed in the British Museum. The male is smaller 

 than the female, and differs in having its upper surface entirely black. 

 The immense quantities in which the insect has been found in the 

 cones, at least in all the later importations, and the fact that the 

 early stage in which the cone is attacked renders protection or pre- 

 vention by man nearly impossible, are likely, I fear, to keep this pine 

 always comparatively scarce. 



3. "On the supposed influence of the Moon on Vegetation, in 

 Peru," by Archibald Smith, M.D. 



The author thought it not unreasonable that the lunar ray might 

 have a peculiar chemical agency on the functions of plants and ani- 

 mals, as it appears to have on dead animal matter. It must be borne 

 in mind that the light afforded both by the sun and moon in Peru is 

 much greater than in the British Islands, — so that, although we may 

 reasonably repudiate any marked effect from the moonlight in these 

 islands, the more intense lunar light of Peru may exercise a sensible 

 power on plants. The author alluded particularly to the surprisingly 

 rapid growth of luceru, which is extensively cultivated in Peru, and 

 is evidently much favoured by light, whether of sun, or sun and moon 

 together. During the prevailing misty season on the coast (which 

 is the time when the low and maritime sand-hills are garnished veith 

 grass and flowers to tlieir summits) the growth of lucern in the plains 

 and valleys is greatly stinted. In these wet months, as they are 

 called, though the rain very rarely forms into a light shower, or 

 exceeds the limits of a dripping mist, the clover or luceru does not 

 attain to a flowering maturity ; but no sooner do the vapours of the 

 coast begin to break up, and the suu show itself in a brightening 

 sky, than this useful plant receives a fresh impulse, yielding two or 

 three luxuriant crops in succession. This remarkable vigour of 

 vegetation under the influence of a returning sun, argues on behalf 

 of light, more than of heat. Besides, in the temperate valleys of 

 the Sierra, where the summer temperature of the air does not exceed 

 the winter temperature of the coast, the Incern grows luxuriantly 



