294 Linrusan Society. 



December 16. — R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Read a Letter from Mr. Hogg, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c., to the Secre- 

 tary, recording the capture of two species of Pipe-fish {Syngnathus) 

 during the last summer, the one near the mouth of the river Tees, 

 the other in that river near Middlesborough, by the same person, a 

 fisherman of Stockton. The first of these, Syngnathus Typhis, L., 

 measured 15f inches in length, and the formula of its fins, which 

 differs in the descriptions of Donovan and Jenyns, was as follows : — 

 D. 39 ; C. 10 ; A. (rubbed off) ; P. 13 ? The second, S. aquoreus, L., 

 was 17 J inches long; its dorsal fin had thirty-nine rays ; and the 

 caudal fin was obsolete, or rather rudimentary, the rays to the 

 number of three (or perhaps four) being inclosed within the ekin of 

 the body ; the tail was flattened at the extremity. 



Read also, a " Note on the Natural History of Shetland." By 

 Adam White, Esq., F.L.S. &c. 



In this note, after referring to Dr. Hibbert's researches into the 

 mineral riches of Shetland, to Dr. Fleming's contributions to its 

 zoology, to Mr. Dunn's interesting work on its birds, and Mr. Hewit- 

 son's investigation of their eggs, and to 'the fruitful results of the 

 dredgings of Mr. Barlee, Mr. M^Andrew and Professor Forbes, by 

 ■which so much has been done to increase our knowledge of the 

 living inhabitants of its surrounding seas, Mr. White expresses an 

 opinion that the zoological riches of the coasts of Shetland will be 

 found to equal, if not to surpass, those of the Firths of Forth or of 

 Clyde, and even of the coasts of Dorset, Devon and Cornwall them- 

 selves. He refers to the two principal rarities in the flora of these 

 islands (the Arenaria Norvegica, Gunner, and Ajuga pyramidalis, L.), 

 and concludes by announcing the discovery by himself of a Lapland 

 species of Humble-bee, new to the British fauna, which occurs not 

 uncommonly in his brother's garden at Lerwick, is still more fre- 

 quent in that of Mr. Bruce of Sandlodge opposite Mousa, and seems 

 even more abundant in Unst. This was immediately recognized by 

 Mr. Frederick Smith as Bombus arcticus of Dahlbom ; but as a species 

 of Bombus had been described by Kirby under the same specific name 

 in the Appendix to Capt. Parry's First Arctic Voyage in 1822, and 

 consequently ten years before the publication of Dahlbom's species, 

 Mr. White proposes to name the latter Bombus Smithianus. He 

 adds that, in accordance with Kirby's rule in his 'Monographia Apum 

 Anglia;,' he would haVe preferred the specific name of Smithiellus, 

 as indicating that it was named after a describer and not merely a 

 collector, but he has felt himself compelled to adopt the name of 

 Smithianus to prevent the possibility of confusion with another 

 species of the family of Apidce to which the name Smiihella has been 

 applied. 



Read further a memoir " On the Forest-Trees of British Guiana 

 and their Uses in Naval and Civil Architecture." By Sir Robert 

 H. Schomburgk, Ph.D. &c. 



This memoir had been read at the meeting of the British Associa- 



