Royal Physical Society. 29 



our Society, to lament that the confidence of the donor, and 

 the interests of science, have been so egregiously cheated. In 

 the meantime, and before adopting any measures for the pub- 

 lic benefit in connection with the subject, let us express our 

 earnest hope that the newly-elected magistrates will bestir 

 themselves and wipe off the disgrace. 



Suffer me, before retiring, to thank you for the honour you 

 thrust upon me as your President — an office I willingly resign 

 into abler hands, and, wishing you all prosperity, bid you 

 farewell. 



On the motion of Dr Grevtlle, seconded by Robert Chambers, Esq., 

 the thanks of the Society was unanimously given to Professor Fleming 

 for his address. 



II. Notice of the Leaf Insect (Phyllium Scythe), lately bred in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, with Remarks on its Metamorphoses 

 and Growth. By Andrew Murray, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh. (Plates 

 II., III., IV.) 



The Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh has, during the 

 past summer, possessed an attraction which has drawn great 

 numbers of visitors. 



A living specimen of one of the species of leaf-insect has, 

 for nearly eighteen months, been an inmate of the hothouses ; 

 and the curiosity of the public to see this interesting animal 

 had latterly become so engrossing, that Mr M'Nab, the curator 

 of the Gardens, to whose care and judicious management the 

 prolonged life of the insect is entirely due, found it necessary, 

 for the health of the insect itself, to forbid its being shown on 

 more than four days in the week. 



For the greatest period of its life, it so exactly resembled 

 the leaf on which it fed, that when visitors were shown it, they 

 usually, after looking carefully over the plant for a minute or 

 two, declared that they could see no insect. It had then to be 

 more minutely pointed out to them ; and although seeing is 

 notoriously said to be believing, it looked so absolutely the 

 same as the leaves among which it rested, that this test rarely 

 satisfied them, and nothing would convince them that there 

 was a real live insect there, but the test of touch. It had to 

 be stirred up to make it move, or still more commonly was 

 taken off the plant, and made to crawl on the finger of the at- 

 tendant ; and the excitement of this constant stirring up and 



