Linnaan Society. 291 



plants producing them, he gives some particulars in his letter. 

 Two of these belong to the genus Dorema, Don ; and a third, de- 

 rived from a plant, which Mr. Loftus regards as belonging to the 

 tribe Sileridce, is called in Kurdish "beeje." The three gums have 

 the same general properties, and grow on a limestone soil, at the 

 elevation of from 5000 to 7000 feet. Large quantities of gum are 

 also produced by the wild Almond, a species of Astragalus, and the 

 Pistacia vera, which grow abundantly in the same neighbourhood ; 

 and there is, moreover, a kind of thistle, which exudes honey, esi)e- 

 cially from the bud, on being pierced by a species of Rhynchophora. 

 Mr. Loftus proposes to resume his observations, as his party pro- 

 ceeds northward, in the course of the ensuing summer. 



November 18. — R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Adam White, F.L.S., exhibited, on the part of J. H. Gilbert, 

 Esq., Ph.D., of Harpenden, near St. Albans, a portion of a wooden 

 cistern lined with lead and perforated with numerous holes by the 

 A?iobium striatum, in relation to which he entered into a detailed ac- 

 count of the circumstances in wiiich it had occurred. In this case 

 the cistern, which belonged to Mr. Curtis, a brewer of Harpenden, 

 was made from an old fermenting tub, which had become much 

 worm-eaten on the outside. In 1838 it was lined with thin lead 

 (of 5 lbs. to the square foot) ; but in little more than three years it 

 began to leak, when some small holes were discovered in the lead 

 and were soldered over. In 1842, however, the leakage had increased 

 to such an extent that the leaden lining was removed, and a thicker 

 one (of 18 lbs. to the square foot) was substituted. Five or six 

 years afterwards, however, the leakage again commenced ; and in 

 1850 it had proceeded to such an extent that the cistern was entirely 

 removed to make room for one of iron. On taking out the lining 

 it was clearly ascertained that the perforations from which the 

 leakage arose were the work of an insect, which, after boring through 

 the wood, had made its way also through the leaden lining. A spe- 

 cimen sent by Dr. Gilbert to the British Museum was determined 

 by Mr. White to be the Anobium striatum ; and similar instances of 

 injury to wooden cisterns lined with lead were referred to as detailed 

 in Mr. Westwood's ' Introduction to the Modern Classification of 

 Insects,' in the ' Zoologist,' and in the ' Proceedings of the Ento- 

 mological Society.' 



Read the commencement of a memoir " On two Genera of Plants 

 from the Cordillera of Chih." By John Miers, Esq., F.R.S., 

 F.L.S. &c. 



December 2. — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Read the conclusion of Mr. Miers's memoir " On two Genera of 



ants from the Cordillera of Chili." 



Both these plants were collected by Mr. Miers in his rapid journey 

 over the Cordillera in 1825. The first belongs to the tribe of Erio- 

 gonew, from all the known genera of which it is distinguished by its 



19* 



