General Notices. 369 



The individual colours exhibit further the following differences, when the 

 flowering odoriferous species in each colour are reduced to 100 agreeable- 

 smelling species : there are, according to the above relations, in the flowers 

 of 100 agreeable-smelling species, — 



Having a Violet colour - 34.'2 



Green - - 24.-2 



Of coloured flowers altogether 22*7 



The orange and brown flowering plants seem to possess a larger number of 

 disagreeable than of agreeable-smelling species. Among 4200 species examined, 

 there are two brown plants which are odoriferous, viz. the X>elphinium triste 

 L., and the brownish-red flowering Scrophularia aquatica L.; and three odo- 

 riferous orange and yellowish-red flowers, the Nicot/««« glutinosa L., Ales- 

 tris Uvaria, L., and Terbascum versiflorum Schrad. : the last alone has an 

 agreeable smell ; the others have a disagreeable odour. It is well known, and 

 not on that account the less remarkable, that the great genus Stapeh'a, which 

 so frequently exhibits flowers of a yellowish-red or yellowish-brown colour, 

 includes so many species having a disagreeable odour, often like that of car- 

 rion ; further, that two species, distinguished by their peculiarly offensive 

 odour, viz. the JVum divaricatum W., and the /I'sarum europce^um, should 

 possess a dark brown, passing into violet, corolla. 



We perceive, then, from these details, that white flowers are, for the most 

 part, and especially, sweet-smelling ; but the family of the Cruciatas is in this 

 respect an exception, for many of the species have non-odoriferous flowers, 

 whereas they possess as a compensation a transient sharpness; as in the genera 

 Cochlearia, Z-epidium, Cardamine, Thlaspi, 5'isymbrium, Senebiera, &c. 

 Among the Monocotyledons, we observe the same thing in the genus yi'llium. 



After having deduced these results from the species considered collectively, 

 the authors take a general view of the larger genera in regard to the relations 

 of colour and smell, in which they separate the genera of each principal 

 colour into three divisions, according to the different proportions of white in 

 their flowers ; they then enumerate together the whole species of each colour ; 

 and thus calculate the number of odoriferous species which occur, taking the 

 mean of 100 species. (Edbi. Phil. Journ., January, 1837, p. 11.) 



Entomology. — Dr. Robineau Desvoidy, physician at Saint Sauveur, in the 

 department of Yonne, has made some interesting and novel observations con- 

 cerning insects, and presented seven memoirs detailing them, to the French 

 Academy of Sciences. The first treats of two species of mason bees, which 

 build their nests in empty snail-shells of two sorts, the Helix aspersa, and the 

 H. nemoralis, and belong to the genus O'smia. One of these species the author 

 names Helicicola ; and it is remarkable for closing the orifice of the shell b^' a 

 papyraceous operculum, composed of vegetable remains, united by a gummy 

 juice, proceeding from the saliva of the bee: there is then a layer of yellowish 

 honey; and after this the cells are continued to the top of the spire. The 

 second species, under the name of bicolor, chiefly inhabits the H. nemoralis ; 

 and in its nest are found fragments of pebbles, either calcareous or siliceous, 

 placed in four or five successive layers, and separated by a partition of paper : 

 at the bottom only are one or two cells, each containing some yellowish honey, 

 and one larva. In these nests M. Robineau has found a parasitical insect, 

 named Sapjga punctata, but could not ascertain how the females introduced 

 themselves to deposit their eggs. Another parasite, called S. Chelostomae, 

 penetrates the nests of the Chelostoma (which is found in the trunks of old 

 trees) at the moment that they are quitted by the rightful owner, A third 

 memoir treats of the parasites of the badger, as they exist in the small intestines, 

 or in the outer part of the body. The fourth describes an insect with two wings, 

 the larva of which lives as a parasite in the body of the drone-bee. It is a 

 species of Conops, and pursues the drone with great perseverance in order to 

 effect its purpose. The drone seems, at first, to be verv angry ; shakes its wings 



Vol. XIII. — No. 98. b b 



