﻿46 



mediate forms wo7tld occur, and tJiere would be no tendency for 

 their extinction; on the contrary, the intermediate climate of the 

 central portion of the species range would tend to preserve them. 



" (2 b) But if Gonepteryx had had seasonal forms hke those 

 of Colias eurytheme, there not being a successio?i of broods, but 

 only two in the year, no intermediate forms would arise, 

 and the dimorphism would become stereotyped and ready, 

 under altered conditions (vide former note), to produce two 

 such species as G. rhamni and cleopatra. 



" If this makes my meaning any clearer to you, and you 

 think my view was not rightly understood from the former 

 note, would you mind allowing the above to be read, or 

 reading it yourself before the Society ? " 



Notwithstanding Mr. Cockerell has very clearly stated his 

 argument, I find great difficulty in agreeing with him. 

 Gonepteryx rhamni is not a northern species only, but on the 

 contrary it inhabits the whole of Europe, except the Polar 

 regions ; and it is figured by the late Mr. Pryer in his 

 " Rhopalocera Niponica," the Japanese form apparently not 

 differing from the European ; further, the species is not 

 double-brooded, nor is G. cleopatra I believe. 



Mr. Cockerell imagines that the case is similar to that of 

 Colias eurytheme and C. keewaydin; but both these are figured 

 by Edwards in his "Butterflies of North America" as having 

 the wings suffused with orange, although to a much greater 

 extent in the former than in the latter species. Seeing there- 

 fore that G. rhamni and G. cleopatra exist over a large part 

 of Europe in the same districts, and have a synchronous 

 appearance in the latter part of the summer, and again after 

 hibernation in the spring, I feel myself unable to accept his 

 ingenious theory of the origin of the two species. 



Mr. J. W. Slater read a paper, "Nature's Sanitary and 

 Anti-Sanitary Services," of which the following is an 

 abstract : — 



" We too often fail to realize the vast quantity of organic 

 refuse produced daily upon our globe as a necessary result 

 of the existence of animal and vegetable life. Were this 

 mass of matter — often offensive — not duly dealt with, we 

 should, on the one hand, be surrounded with injurious 

 nuisances, and, on the other hand, we should soon find the 



