156 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Linnean Socrery or Lonpon. 
November 7, 1878.—Professor G. J. Autmay, F.R.S., President, in the 
chair. 
At this the first meeting of the session, the following gentlemen were 
elected Fellows of the Society :—The Rev. W. W. Fowler, Repton, Burton- 
on-Trent ; Wilfred Huddleston, Esq., 23, Cheyne Walk, S.W.; and Thomas 
Moss Shuttleworth, Esq., Howick, Preston, Lancashire. 
Dr. F. Buchanan White read « Descriptions of new Hemiptera.” The 
specimens on which his communication was founded were chiefly obtained 
by Prof. J. W. H. Trail during his explorations on the Amazon. Dr. White 
defined two new genera (Helenus and Neovelia), and gave the diagnosis, 
with remarks, of seventeen new species: these are Paryphes pontifex, 
Fibrenus guttatus, Largus lentus, Ischorovemus inambitiosus, Pamera 
pagana, Lethaeus lepidus, Helenus hesiformis, Acanthocheila abducta, 
Hydrometra metator, Velia vivida, V. virgata, Neovelia Trailii, Microvelia 
minuta, Hydrobates regulus, Limnogonus lotus, L. lubricus, and Pelocoris 
procurrens. 
Sir J. D. Hooker presented to the Society, in the name of a committee of 
gentlemen, a large oil painting of the Rey. M. A. Berkeley, the distinguished 
fungologist, painted by Mr. I. T. Peale. 
Although the papers read at this meeting were chiefly on botanical 
subjects, some of these are of sufficient interest to zoologists to be men- 
tioned here ;— 
Dr. Maxwell Masters read an extract from a letter of Dr. Beccari, 
describing a gigantic Aroid found by him in Sumatra. Its tuber is five 
feet round, and the blade of the petiole is said to cover an area of fifteen 
metres, or forty-five feet. 
In a paper on the Euphorbias, Mr. George Bentham made some per- 
tinent remarks on the subject of nomenclature. Regretting the increasing 
confusion in synonomy, he observed, “ Besides the young liberal-minded 
botanists who scorn to submit to any rules but their own, there are others 
who differ materially in their interpretation of some of the laws, or who do 
not perceive that in following too strictly their letter instead of their spirit 
they are only adding needlessly to the general disorder. - In the application 
as well as in the interpretation of these rules, they do not sufficiently bear 
in mind the general principles—first, that the object of the Linnean 
nomenclature is the ready identification of Species, genera, or other groups 
