2672 Microscopical Society. 



The following donation was announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 

 donor. « The Zoologist' for 1849, July to December; by E. Newman, Esq. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited some specimens of Tinea ferruginella, Hbn. (ustella, Haw., 

 St.), taken in a coal-mine near Glasgow, by Mr. Scott [Zool. 2633], and remarked 

 that it was not a little singular that— though bred in the dark— the specimens were 

 very brightly coloured. 



Mr. Westwood exhibited a box of exotic Coleoptera, from the collection of A. 

 Melly, Esq., containing a further series of x\ustralian Pselaphidae, a Brazilian species 

 of Articerus, and several Australian species of Cryptodus and allied genera. 



Mr. Westwood also exhibited specimens, in all its stages, of Baridius trinotatus 

 (vestitus, Schonherr), an American species of weevil, about the size of Calandra gra- 

 naria, which had been communicated to him by Mr. Josiah Forster, having been ob- 

 served by Miss Morris, of Germantown, to attack the potatoes in America to such an 

 extent as to have led to the belief of its being the real cause of the potato disease. 

 The eggs are deposited in the leaf buds ; and the larvae, as soon as hatched, burrow 

 into the stems, within which they feed, descending to the root and causing the decay 

 of the plant. Messrs. Westwood, Stephens and Waterhouse, said, that of course this 

 insect was not the cause of the potato disease, but the fact was certainly interesting ; 

 the identical species trinotatus not being British, the species of the genus Baridius 

 being rare in this country, and none of them frequenting the potato. 



Mr. Shepherd exhibited a magnificent series of Peronea Hastiana, L., bred from 

 larvae and pupae found in sallow leaves, in the neighbourhood of London. 



Mr. Saunders read a paper on a species of Hesthesis and Agapete carissima, 

 Newm. 



The President announced that a book had been sent to him, and was on the 

 table, in which any gentleman who wished to become a promoter of the great exhi- 

 bition of the works of industry of all nations was requested to sign his name. — 

 H. T. S. 



Proceedings of the Microscopical Society of London. 

 Abstracts of the Papers read November 14th [See Zool. 2636]. 



A paper " On the Growth of Grass," by S. W. Leonard, Esq., was read. After 

 some preliminary observations, he stated that about three years ago his attention was 

 called to this subject, by observing that some grass — which was in a vessel in which 

 he kept some animalcules — increased in height very rapidly, one shoot which he mea- 

 sured having grown as much as an inch and a half in twenty-four hours. He con- 

 sequently thought that, by proper management, he might possibly be enabled to see it 

 grow under the microscope. Being prevented at that time by other avocations from 

 pursuing the subject, he was unable to verify his idea until July last, when, having 

 procured a turf of the common meadow-grass (Poa annua), he manured it, and then 

 found it grew at the rate of an inch or more in twenty-four hours. One of the young 

 stems, with its root, was placed in a small test-tube, which being properly adjusted 

 under the microscope, he had the satisfaction — with a power of 400 diameters — of 

 seeing it traverse the field of view. At first no motion was perceptible ; but in about 

 half a minute the point darted forwards considerably, and after remaining stationary 



