r 



VOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 607 



several broken pieces of urns, and dust of a greyish colour, ^were found with 

 them, which seemed to have the appearance of ashes. 



N^ 1, is by the scale 6 feet 8 inches high, and about 2 feet 3 inches wide 

 above the base. It has a pediment top, with a pine apple rising from the middle 

 of the cornice, on each side of which is a lion, and in the area of the pediment 

 a kind of rose. The inscription, which is cut in the plane of the stone, may be 

 thus read; Caius Mannius, Caii filius, Pollia tribu, Secundus PoUentinus, miles 

 legionis vicesimae, annorum lii, stipendiorum xxxi, beneficiarius legati prin- 

 cipalis, hie situs est. 



N" 2 contains two inscriptions, and is in height 2 feet 7-i- inches, by 2 feet 4-f- 

 inches in breadth. It is not flat, as the former, but gently convex crosswise, 

 the lower part being divided into 3 pannels; on the first two of which are the in- 

 scriptions, but the other seems never to have had any on it. The upper part is 

 ornamented with a pediment, in the area of which are the remains of a face with 

 curled locks, and 2 snakes under it; and on the cornice 2 figures like dolphins. 

 The first inscription may be read thus: Diis Manibus. Placida annorum lv, 

 curam agente conjuge annorum xxx. And the other in this manner: Diis Ma- 

 nibus. Deuccus annorum xv, curam agente patre. 



N° 3 is 6 feet 1 1 inches high, and about 2 feet broad above the base. It has 

 also a pediment at the top, the area of which is filled with a large flower. The 

 inscription, it exhibits, may be read in the following manner; Marcus Petronius, 

 Lucii filius, Menenia tribu, vixit annos xxxviii, miles legionis xiiii geminae, 

 militavit annos xviii, signifer fuit, hie sepultus est. 



XXXI 1. On an American Wasp's West,* shoivn to the Royal Society. By Mr. 



Israel Mauduit, F. R. S. p. 205. 



M. de Reaumur distinguishes wasps into three classes, from the difl^erent situa- 

 tions in which they place their nests; some choosing unfrequented parts of 

 houses, some little cavities in the earth, and others the branches of trees for that 

 purpose. The first of these is the largest sort, or hornet ; the second is the 

 common sort herein England; and the last is more frequent in America. 



The nest, then shown to the Society, was sent from Maryland, where they 

 are found on the lower kinds of trees, in the thickest parts of the woods. This 

 was built on a dogwood-tree, or the comus mas Virginiana; and hung quite de- 

 tached from the rest of the tree by an extreme branch, of little more than an inch 

 circumference: which, with its smaller divisions running through the substance 

 of the nest, answered the purpose of pillars, to unite and support the several floors 



• This wasp's nest, which is not described with sufficient accuracy, is probably that of the vespa 

 nidulans of Fabricius. 



