Miscellaneous. 37 7 



Mr JBabington read a notice of a botanical excursion to Jersey 

 and Guernsey, made during the month of August last. (This paper 

 will appear in our next Number.) Professor Lindley stated, that Prof. 

 Augusta, a Spanish botanist, had investigated the flora of the Channel 

 islands, and had made out a list of the plants, so far as he knew them 

 to exist, which was deposited in the libraries of some of the institu- 

 tions there, and would be serviceable to botanists that might again 

 wish to examine the islands. Mr Forbes bore witness to the similarity 

 of the botany of Jersey to the adjacent coast of France, and stated that 

 Lamium album was not found in the Isle of Man. 



Mr Allis read a paper on the Sclerotic bones of birds and animals, 

 and exhibited preparations of the bones from the collection of the 

 York Philosophical Society. He commenced by stating, that the 

 opinions expressed by several eminent comparative anatomists were 

 at variance with what he had observed, and cited those of Blumen- 

 bach, Carus, Cuvier, Yarrell and Buckland, pointing out in what 

 manner they differed from his own observations ; and adduced as an 

 example of the very great variation in the statements of these men, 

 the Eagle-owl, said by Cuvier to contain a series of twenty bones, 

 while Mr Allice could only find fifteen. The greatest number found 

 in any bird he had yet examined was seventeen, the smallest eleven ; 

 and he thought, that, from the different form and structure which 

 he had been able to observe, any particular order might be at once 

 distinguished. 



Mr Reid communicated a paper on the chemical composition of 

 vegetable fibre, — alluding to the great difficulty which Prof. Henslow 

 had expressed in separating the cellular tissue from membrane, which 

 he now considered comparatively easily accomplished, and that its 

 composition could be therefore correctly ascertained. Prof. Henslow 

 considered that Mr Reid had not yet succeeded in separating the two 

 materials, and that he had not performed the experiments with suffi- 

 cient care ; in which Prof. Lindley concurred, stating that the hollow 

 cells emerge into the petals as well as the stamens, and that Prof. 

 Henslow's meaning had been evidently mistaken. 



The Rev. F. TV. Hope read some observations on the genus JFi- 

 laria, confining his observations principally to those species which 

 infest insects, and exhibited a specimen of Steropus ethiops, vrith 

 the parasitic Filaria protruding. He considered that the first attack 

 was made in the larva state, and that in this respect they, to a cer- 

 tain degree, resembled the Ichneumons, and might, among Coleopte- 

 rous insects, assume their part, and be a wise provision for controlling 

 the exuberance of species. All the insects hitherto recorded as in- 



