Extracts from the Mimitc-Book of the Liuneaii Society. 507 



Aw. 5. Mr. Arthur Aikin, F.L.S, presented a Specimen of 

 the Astrantia major L., found by him in an apparently 

 wild state in a wood which covers the N .E. side of Yeo- 

 edge, a limestone hill, near Stokesay Castle, on the road 

 between Ludlow and Church Stretton. 



March2, A Communication on the Locust {GrijUus ^uigratu- 

 1826. rius Linn.) which lately devastated the Crimea and the 

 southern provinces of Russia, was presented by John 

 Smirnove, Esq., F.R. and L.S., Secretaiy to the Rus- 

 sian Embassy. The following are extracts : — " The 

 Locust deposits its eggs in small bags composed of a 

 thin membrane, about the size of an almond. Each 

 of these bags is found to contain from 80 to 100 egos : 

 so that an idea may be formed of their amazing fecun- 

 dity. In the spring, about the month of April, when 

 the sun begins to give new life to vegetation, the eggs 

 are quickly hatched, and the insects, in the shape of 

 white beetles, are seen creeping out in myriads. In 

 this state they spread themselves over whole fields 

 during the day ; but at night they collect together in 

 clusters, and thousands of locust-hillocks may be seen 

 in one corn-field. After remainins two or three weeks 

 in the crawling state, the insects, daily gaining strength, 

 next begin to leap. At this period they become de- 

 structive, from their destroying the springing corn and 

 the young shoots of the vine ; and gradually gaining 

 strength, they spread themselves more and more, and 

 unite in such multitudes, that in some places many 

 miles in extent are covered with them in columns of 

 from six to ten inches thick and upwards. In June 



they 



