Linnaan Society. 353 



appendage of one of the stamina, and that of the right also one fully- 

 developed appendage, the appendage of the fifth stamen (small and 

 only partially developed) bending back after proceeding only a little 

 way. A little below the flower, between it and the true bractea?, 

 which present their usual appearance, there is a whorl of five bract- 

 like sepals, between two of which, and directly beneath the largest- 

 spurred petal of the monstrous flower, is a single petal partially de- 

 veloped and exhibiting an abortive spur. 4< In this case/' the author 

 proceeds, " we have the outer whorl of floral envelopes developed, 

 and an effort made towards the development of the second in the 

 aborted basal petal ; then the axis elongating and terminating in a 

 flower in which two of the sepals are aborted and four of the petals, 

 viz. the two laterals and two superior ones, for the absence of tufts 

 of hairs prevents our regarding two of the three as the former, and 

 the presence of lineated bases shows that they are not the latter. 

 They are repetitions of the basal petal, which in this instance is 

 multiplied by three, as in the cases before described it was multi- 

 plied by two." In this plant no traces of the fungus were observed. 



Prof. Forbes cites the instances of Peloria among Violets recorded 

 by Leers and DeCandolle, and refers to the view adopted by the 

 latter and by M. Moquin-Tandon, viz. that the Peloria is caused by 

 the tendency of all the petals to assume a spurred condition in con- 

 sequence of a general effort as it were on the part of an irregular 

 flower to become regular. He states that DeCandolle's figures are 

 not sufficient to enable him to judge if such was the case in the in- 

 stances depicted by him, but maintains that the Peloria Violets which 

 form the subject of the present communication " owe their monstrous 

 regularity to a very different phenomenon, viz. the effort of an irre- 

 gular flower to become regular by the multiplication and symmetri- 

 calization of its irregular parts." 



Read also " Descriptions of some new or imperfectly known spe- 

 cies of Bolboceras." By J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. &c. 



In this paper Mr. Westwood proceeds, in continuation of his 

 former communication (see p. 143), containing a Synopsis of the 

 Australian species of Bolboceras, to give descriptions of others of the 

 genus from various parts of the world, and especially from the East 

 Indies. The descriptions were accompanied as -before with illustra- 

 tive drawings. 



1. Bolboceras Cyclops, Fabr. (Ent. Syst. i. p. 15 ; Oliv. Ent. i. 3. t. 15. 

 f. 140); ferrugineus ; clypeo antice caring transversa tuberculisque 

 duobus acutis instructo, vertice linea, tenui parum elevata inter oculos, 

 pronoto utrinque excavatione profunda subrotunda antice cornu acuto 

 alteroque minori versus medium armato : spatio inter cornua inter- 

 media piano punctato antice linea semicirculari pariim elevata cincto 

 canali vix distincto longitudinali ante scutellum terminato, elytris punc- 

 tato-striatis striis tenuibus, tibiis anticis 8-dentatis. $ — Long. corp. 

 lin. 9. 

 Variat mas magnitudine dentium capitis et pronoti necnon profunditate 



cxcavationiun lmjus lateral ium. 

 /lab. in Java, Assam, et India centrali. Mus. Hope (olim Lee) et nostr. 

 (Hearsey). 



