Linnaan Society. 275 



pear are instanced as illustrating the mode of growth in annual 

 plants ; (page 41) tne holly is called a shrub ; (page 43) the snow- 

 drop is instanced as having a solitary flower on a stalk called a scape, 

 in which we think that we see two errors, since a scape often bears 

 more than one flower, and the snowdrop has several flowers. At 

 page 98, line 3, we fancy that " figure " is put for " Fig." " In the 

 different kinds of clover we meet with spikes, umbels and capitules " 

 (p. 99) ; we doubt the correctness of this statement. Sepals is put 

 for petals on page 131 at line 11. 



There are a few other similar instances of inadvertence, but their 

 very insignificance shows how little there is to which to except in 

 the book, which we cannot too strongly recommend to our readers. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



LINNiEAN SOCIETY. 



Dec. 19, 1848. — The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Adam White, F.L.S., exhibited three curious species of He- 

 miptera belonging to the genera Scaptocoris and Petalochirus. He 

 made some remarks on fossorial insects in general, illustrating them 

 with specimens of a New Zealand Mole-Cricket and of a new genus 

 of Carabidce, allied to Scarites. He particularly described a new spe- 

 cies of Scaptocoris {S. Amyoti) from Northern India, remarkable in- 

 asmuch as it forms a second distinct species of a very striking genus 

 hitherto known to occur only in Brazil (S. castaneus, Perty). 



Read a paper, entitled " Experiments and Observations on the 

 Poison of Animals of the Order Araneidea." By John Black wall, Esq., 

 F.L.S.&c. 



After referring to the fabulous accounts of the singular effects said 

 to be produced in the human species by the bite of the Tarantula, and of 

 the serious and sometimes fatal consequences attributed to that of the 

 Malmignatte, Mr. Blackwall proceeds to consider the validity of an 

 opinion prevalent among arachnologists of the present day, that in- 

 sects pierced by the fangs of spiders die almost instantaneously. He 

 states that in the summer of 1846 he commenced an experimental 

 investigation of the subject, the particulars of which he commu- 

 nicates, arranging his experiments under four distinct heads, corre- 

 sponding to the objects upon which they were made, namely the 

 human species, spiders, insects, and inanimate substances. The ex- 

 periments are detailed at length, and the following are the principal 

 results. 



First, as regards the effect of the bite of spiders upon the human 

 species. The species selected was Epe'ira Diadema, and Mr. Black- 

 wall states the legitimate conclusion deducible from various expe- 

 riments to be, that there is nothing to apprehend from the bite of the 

 most powerful British spiders, even when inflicted at a moment of 

 extreme irritation and in hot sultry weather, the pain occasioned by 



