SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 319 



plants, namely, 0. wilckeanum (produced from 0. crispum and O.luteo- 

 purpureum) and 0. excellens (produced from O.pescatorei and 0. triumphant). 

 These had first appeared as natural hybrids out of imported plants, and the 

 parentage was subsequently ascertained under cultivation. 



On behalf of Sir George Macpherson Grant, Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited 

 some curiously abnormal horns of the Roe-deer (the result of disease) which 

 had been taken from an animal found dead near Forres, N. B. For the 

 purpose of comparison, he exhibited some normal heads of the Roe from 

 other parts of Scotland and from Germany, and made some remarks on the 

 causes of variation in the size and form of the antlers to which Roe-deer 

 were peculiarly liable. 



A paper was then read by Mr. Spencer Moore on the true nature ot 

 "callus," and in continuation of former remarks on the same subject (Linn. 

 Soc. Journ., Bot. vol. xxvii. Nos. 187, 188). He showed that the outer 

 sieve-plates of the Fig are obliterated by a substance giving all the dye 

 reactions of callus, which does not peptonise and will not yield proteid 

 reactions. Many of the inner sieve-plates he found to be stopped up with 

 a proteid callus resembling in every way the substance of Ballia stoppers, 

 and the proteid callus of the Vegetable Marrow. It appeared that true 

 callus would dissolve in a solution of gum-arabic, but whether by agency of 

 a ferment or of an acid he had not yet determined. 



A second paper by Mr. Spencer Moore dealt with the alleged existence 

 of protein in the walls of vegetable cells, and the microscopical detection of 

 glucosides therein. 



Entomological Society of London. 



July 1, 1891. — Mr. Feederick DuCane Godman, M.A., F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. 



The Rev. John Isabell, of St. Sennen Rectory, Penzance, was elected a 

 Fellow of the Society. 



Mr. Jacoby exhibited a specimen of a species of Coleoptera belonging to 

 the family Galerucidce, with the maxillary palpi extraordinarily developed. 



The Rev. Canon Fowler, on behalf of Mr. Wroughton, Conservator of 

 Forests, Poona, exhibited specimens of a bug imitating an ant, Polyrachis 

 spiniger, and of a spider imitating a species of Mutilla, and read the following 

 notes: — " I have taken a good many specimens of a bug which has achieved 

 a very fair imitation of Polyrachis spiniger (under the same stone with which 

 it may be found), even to the extent of evolving a pedicle and spines in 

 what, were it an ant, would be its metanotum. Curiously enough, however, 

 these spines are apparently not alike in any two specimens. Is it that this 

 bug is still waiting for one of its race to accidentally sport spines more like 

 those of P. spiniger, and thus to set the ball of evolution rolling afresh ? 



