540 I Assembly 



In Siberia, grain grows as far north as the sixtieth degree of lati- 

 tude, but in Kamschatka it does not grow even as far as 51°. But, in 

 the continent of North America, in the Russian district in latitude 57°, 

 rye and barley reach maturity. In Lapland, groin is matured as far 

 as latitude 70° north ; beyond that some potatoes grow. The grains 

 which reach farthest north in Europe, are barley and oats, and form 

 the chief vegetable food of the inhabitants of the northern parts of 

 Sweden, Norway, Denmark and all the borders of the Baltic, north 

 of Germany and south of Siberia ; in the latter another very nutritious 

 grain, the buckwheat, is very frequently cultivated. Rye is the next 

 grain which associated with barley and oats, is the prevailing grain 

 in a great part of the northern temperate zone, viz: in the southerly 

 parts of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. To these grains there fol- 

 lows a zone in Europe and western Asia, where rye disappears and 

 wheat ahnost exclusively furnishes the bread ; then. comes the grape- 

 vine, then the rice. Rice is next, and flourishes in and near the torrid 

 zone ; maize predominates in America whence it came ; rice in Asia, 

 its original seat and both of them in Africa. Our principal grasses 

 grow to about three or four feet in height, in Europe ; but on the banks 

 of the Amazon the Panicum spectabile reaches six to seven feet high. 



Of wheat there are fourteen species, and this most precious gift of 

 our creator is one of the few plants which cannot be hybridized. 



H. MEIGS. 



Insects. — At the last meeting of the club, I spoke of the three stages 

 of insect life, from the larva to imago. Of the latter, which is the 

 perfect creature and capable of rc-producing its race, I propose to 

 say a few words. In the first place, let us consider the class in which 

 the creature is seen as imago. A great })roportion of the coleoptera 

 (shelly covered wings) appear on close examination, as especially un- 

 der a high magnifying power, to be clothed with armour of gorgeous 

 splendor — all that can be furnished by coats of burnished steel, cop- 

 per, brass, gold, ivory, or ebony, or cobalt or ultramarine blue, or that 

 glorious changeable color of green and gold. As to the butterfly, all 

 acknowledge the imperial richness of its robes, but those who have 



