54 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



and the Melocactus, whose spines the mules remove with their 

 fore-feet to drink the refreshing juices contained under its 

 spherical envelope. At length the season of the rains arrives, 

 and " hardly is the surface of the earth moistened, when the 

 desert is clothed by KilUngia, and an infinity of Graminece. 

 In the morning, the herbaceous sensitive plant opens its 

 drowsy leaves to salute the rising sun, as do also the aquatic 

 plants, by opening their delicate flowers, and the birds, by 

 their songs." The boa and crocodile, which have remained 

 torpid, buried in the ground during the dry season, rise as 

 from their tombs ; — all nature is reanimated. But, alas ! 

 after suffering all that can be caused by extreme drought, 

 these unhappy regions are doomed to undergo the opposite 

 extreme. The floods spread, until nearly the whole of the 

 lands are a vast lake, only to be dried up by the action of the 

 sun in the dry season. Surely, the productions of this region 

 can bear no relation to those of the Hylaea of the Oronoco, or 

 of the valleys of Cape Paria, Caraccas, or Santa Martha. 



This will serve to show the impropriety of neglecting to 

 regard natural boundaries. 



I am yours, most truly, 



A. 



(2'o he cmitinued.) 



Art. V. — Entomological Society. 

 First Sitting. — November. 



Since the meeting in May, the proceedings of which we 

 published in our fourth number, the council of the Entomo- 

 logical Society has been unremitting in its exertions. A code 

 of bye-laws has been prepared ; rooms have been engaged 

 and furnished; and a collection has been made already rivaling 

 in extent, surpassing in accuracy of nomenclature and neat- 

 ness of arrangement, most of our metropolitan cabinets. 



On Monday, agreeably to advertisement, the members of 

 the Society met at 17, Old Bond-street. When we entered the 

 room, about twenty minutes past eight, we found it quite 

 crowded wi^th the leading entomologists of the day : we also 



