Liniupan Society. 385 



Mr. Miers states that he offers the above view of the floral enve- 

 lopes (which he regards as consisting of 2 sepals and 6 petals) with 

 much deference, especially as that which Sir \V. J. Hooker has taken 

 of them is in conformity with the usual arrangement of the family. 

 It appears to him, however, to be warranted by the fact that the 

 two broad external leaflets (which he considers as the calyx) form 

 one entire whorl, being continuous at their origin with the margin 

 of the cup of the torus, while the insertion of the six narrower seg- 

 ments (petals) is also upon one line, within the margjin of the same 

 cup ; the cicatrix of the calyx being marked by a clean line on the 

 margin of the cup, while the remains of the claws of the petals are 

 distinctly seen within the same margin forming so many projecting 

 indurated teeth. This (as regards the calyx) is analogous with what 

 occurs in Busbeckia, Endl., Steriphoma, Spr., and Morisonia, Plum., 

 in all of which only 2 sepals exist, or an entire envelope bursting 

 into two valves, 'lo reconcile the apparent anomaly, the author 

 would consider the floral envelope oi Atamisquea either as formed of 

 three series, each consisting of two normal parts, the innermost series 

 appearing double in consequence of the division of its lobes to their 

 point of insertion ; (and this view is supported by the cohesion of 

 the upper and lower pairs of petals at their base when pulled away 

 from the torus, while a distinct interval is manifest between each of 

 these pairs and the shorter lateral petals ;) or he would (still taking 

 the same view with regard to the composition of the upper and lower 

 pairs of petals) regard them as forming with the two lateral petals a 

 whorl of four parts, and suppose the outer series also (the sepals) to 

 be normally four in number, united by adhesion into two. This 

 last view he considers to be rendered somewhat the more probable 

 by its approximating more nearly to the usual structure, and by the 

 fact that each of the sepals when dried readily splits down the middle 

 by a clean line into two distinct segments. 



The paper was illustrated by detailed illustrations of the structure 

 of the plant. 



February 1. — Robert Brown, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. &c., exhibited specimens of the silk 

 spun by the caterpillars of the new Indian silk moth, Bombyx Hut- 

 toni, Westw. (figured in the 'Cabinet of Oriental Entomology,' pi. 12. 

 fig. 4), communicated to him by Capt. T. Hutton. After stating the 

 importance of the discovery of a new and valuable product of this 

 nature in our foreign territories, and that the ' Transactions of the 

 Linnean Society ' contained a valuable paper on East Indian silk 

 insects by Gen. Hardwicke, Mr. Westwood observed that the insect 

 discovered by Capt. Hutton was congeneric with the real silk insect, 

 Bombyx Mori, a native of China, whereas those described in the 

 Transactions of the Society belonged to another genus, Saturnia, 

 and that consequently the silk spun by the new species was likely 

 to approximate nearer to that of B. Mori in its qualities than that 

 of the large Indian Saturniet. Tlie new species had been disco- 

 vered to be a native of the hills about Mussooree, on the south- 



Jnn. ^ Muff. N. Hist. Scr. 'I. Vvl i. 2G 



