Proceedings of Learned Societies. 321 



Mr. Darwin has ascertained that the Catasetum tridentatum 

 is the male form, the flowers bearing pollen masses only ; that 

 in the so-called Monocanthus the pollen masses are rudimentary, the 

 inferior ovary being well-developed and twisted as is usual in orchi- 

 daceous plants, and, further, that the so-styled Myanthus barbatus, 

 which is borne on the same plant, is merely the hermaphrodite form. 



Mr. Darwin remarked on the very extraordinary mechanism 

 which was necessary to ensure the fertilization of the orchids of 

 the unisexual flowers of the genus Catasetum. The pollen masses 

 are attached to elastic fibres, held down by a membrane, and each 

 is furnished with an adhesive disk. The flowers are furnished 

 with antennas ; when these are touched by any object, as an insect, 

 the elastic fibres project out the pollen mass with such force that 

 its adhesive surface adheres to the insect, which, in its search for 

 honey, conveys it to the stigmatic surface of the pistil bearing 

 flower. 



Mr. Darwin stated that the position of the excitable surface of the 

 flower varied in the different species, but that the projection of the 

 pollen mass was, in all cases, in such a direction as to cause its 

 attachment to the insect passing over the irritable surface. 



Total Amount op Australian Gold introduced into England. 

 — Professor Tennant exhibited some rich specimens of auriferous 

 quartz from Nova Scotia, and also the first' specimen of Australian 

 gold that was brought to England. This nugget was exhibited at 

 the Great Exhibition of 1851: Since that time 1000 tons of gold 

 have been imported into this country from Australia, the value of 

 which cannot be estimated as less than about £143,000,000. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.— April 7. 



Silk-producing Moths op Asia. — Mr. E. Moore exhibited a 

 magnificent collection of the various silk-producing moths of India, 

 with specimens of their cocoons and samples of the silks in their 

 raw and manufactured states. The best silk is yielded by the 

 common silkworm, the Bombyx mori, which is now so generally culti- 

 vated ; it is an annual, and feeds on the mulberry. Many other species 

 of Bombyx are also known and cultivated, some yielding several 

 crops of silk every year; specimens of eleven distinct species are 

 contained in Mr. Moore's collection. 



The genus Attacus contains several species of silk-yielding 

 moths. The Tusseh cloth of China is said to be produced by the 

 A. atlas. And the A. Cynthia, .which is known as the Eria, or the 

 Ailanthus silkworm, from feeding on the leaves of that plant, 

 exceeds six inches in length in China, where it has been cultivated 

 for centuries, and clothes large masses of the people. 



The Eria has been introduced into the south of Europe, and has 

 been successfully cultivated in many parts of France, as has also a 

 hybrid between it and the Bengal Eria, Attacus ricini, this latter 

 also feeds freely on the leaves of the castor-oil plant, Bicinus 

 communis. 



The Actias selene is domesticated at Mussooree, where it yields 



