214 THE REV. F. A. WALKER^ D.D., F.L.S., ON 



the Greek word ja^pi.s ; but we, in course of time, have changed 

 the apphcation of the English word jasper and have applied to 

 it the name of opaque qnartz. 



Mr. D. Howard, D.L. — I think we find that there was a curious 

 tendency on the part of the early settlers in America to apply 

 convenient names to the birds and plants they found there, and 

 the chief thing of which we may be perfectly certain as to the 

 popular names of plants or birds which they bear is their singular 

 inaccuracy, and one must not be surprised if a Greek coming into 

 a country where they speak Hebrew proceeds to apply a handy 

 Greek word which might mean something totally different. It is 

 one of the most difficult things to be quite sure what a very 

 familiar word means. I sometimes think the more familiar a 

 word is the more likely it is to be misleading. 



Mr. KiRBY. — I meant to mention that the Avord locust is 

 frequently applied popularly and, of course, entirely inaccurately 

 to the Gicadidce. They of course belong to a totally different 

 order of insects, and have nothing to do with grasshopper or locust ; 

 but they are called locusts in the United States popularly and 

 also in Australia, 1 believe. 



Mr. Howard. — It is a handy word for a new insect. 



Mr. Martin Rouse. — When you said, Mr. Kirby, that you did 

 not know of that large South Aiuerican locust being destructive 

 did you mean that there were no locusts that were destructive in 

 South America, or that that was not one simply ? Because I was 

 thinking, from the description I read of the Voyage of the 

 " Sunbeam^" of an enormous flight of locusts, pi"obably bent on 

 mischief, passing over the country and described by Lady Brasscy, 

 which w'ere seen from a comparatively low height, with the sun 

 shining above them making them look as if they were burnished gold. 



Mr. KiRP.Y. — They are very destructive sometimes in Buenos 

 Ayres and some parts of South America, but I never heard that 

 those very large locusts which are found more in the northei^n parts 

 of the country were specially destructive or that they migrated. 



Mv. Martin Rouse. — It would be a smaller sort then ? 



Mr. Kirby. — Yes ; I think so. 



Rev. F. A. Walker. — I think those large ones come from Brazil, 

 but they may be in Buenos Ayres as well. 



The Chairman. — I will now ask Dr. Walker to reply. 



Rev. F. A. Walker. — I am much obliged, in the first place, to. 



