XVUl PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



individup,! undergoes, from its first formation on the parent stock 

 to the final close of its life, is a subject more or less treated of by 

 all biologists, from the earliest times to the present day ; and yet 

 there is much which has only recently come to light, and requiring 

 further investigation on the part of careful observers, I was much 

 struck by some observations made at one of our meetings last year 

 by Mr. Lubbock, on the metamorphosis of insects, that the four 

 stages of egg, larva, pupa, and imago are not nearly so definite 

 as is popularly supposed, the transformations which some insects 

 undergo within the egg, or in the course of their subsequent lives, 

 being numerous and more or less abrupt or gradual, — a subject 

 which I trust he will pursue and methodize for the use of the 

 general naturalist, who has not time to enter into the details 

 of entomology. In Dr. Cobbold's forthcoming general work on 

 Helminthology, we may hope to find all that can be learnt as to 

 the periods of existence of the dreadful animals he treats of, the 

 investigation of which is so essential to aid in devising the means 

 of obviating their destructive influences. Mycologists, and others 

 who make the lower order of animals and plants abounding in 

 parasites the object of their study, now find how essential it is to 

 follow these beings through all their different stages, not only to 

 prevent that confusion of method which has often placed the same 

 individual at difterent ages in diflerent genera or classes, but to 

 enable us to recognize at one stage the plant or animal which at 

 another stage may do us incalculable injury or benefit. In all 

 these cases we look for critical inquiry into the perfect authenti- 

 cation of each individual fact, and general treatises to enable us to 

 make proper use of the facts ascertained. 



The study of Dimorphism in flowers has acquired a new in- 

 terest since the appearance of Mr. Darwin's paper on Primula 

 and Linum, first published in our own 'Journal' (vol. vi. p. 77), 

 and since reproduced in the ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles ' 

 (ser. 4, vol. xix. p. 204). Isolated cases had, indeed, frequently 

 been observed ; but either no particular attention was paid to them, 

 or advantage was taken for establishing species or even genera 

 solely upon these differences in the proportions or degrees of per- 

 fection in the sexual organs. Mr. Darwin having now pointed 

 out the significance of these differences, and how much they ap- 

 pear to be connected with the complicated mysteries of elficient 

 fecundation, the subject has been taken up by other observers. 

 We have ourselves had two communications from Mr. John Scott, 

 of Edinbxirgh, which will shortly appear in our ' Journal ' ; and the 



