154 



THE NATURALIST. 



quired tlie most minute microscopic exami- 

 nation, and therefore his present report 

 could not be as full and exhaustive for the 

 reason explained as he should wish. 

 Among other specimens, he had discovered 

 one of the long-armed lobster tribe, Gala- 

 thea Andretusei much larger in size than 

 was at all usual, one of the claws of 

 which was most extraordinarily devel- 

 oped. Mr. Norman then called parti- 

 cular attention to the Artemia salina, 

 discovered in the salt pans of Guernsey, 

 and to the fact of its being only found in 

 highly impregnated brine, and not in the 

 water of the open sea. The question as to 

 how it made its way from one salt pan to 

 another, and where lay the origin of the 

 species, was peculiarly interesting. 



Mr. Spence Bate offered a few remarks 

 referring to the well-shrimp, which is to 

 be found in wells only a year or two old, 

 whereas natural springs were quite free 

 from it, 



Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., read his 

 report " On Dredging on the coast of 

 Aberdeen. " 



Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., being called 

 upon next, read "ISTotes on the Develop- 

 ment of a Deep Sea Sponge in a Marine 

 Aquarium," in which he called attention to 

 the great practical value of aquaria in 

 connexion with Marine Zoology, as proved 

 by the instance in question. There could 

 be no question of its practical utility in 

 the study of similar phenomena, and the 

 way in vfhich it demonstrated the possi- 

 bility of keeping deep sea specimens for a 

 considerable length of time. The usual 

 locality of Halicliondria suherea (Dr. 

 J ohnson), Hymeniacidon suherea (Dr. Bow- 

 erbank), is, according to Dr. Bowerbank, 

 " on shells seven to ten fathoms imder 

 water " ; he had never known it develop 

 itself in a vivarium before. 



William Hinds, M.D., read a paper 

 *' On the identity of Origin of Starch and 

 Chlorophyll," in which he demonstrated 

 that the green of nature represents so 

 much amylaceous matter, which, when 



used as food, is convertible jnto animal 

 nutriment. _^Starch, chlorized or unchlorized, 

 is so universal that nearly all the green of 

 vegetation represents so much starch dis- 

 tributed through the exposed tissue of 

 plants, and is, whether in a green or dried 

 state (like hay), nutritious in proportion to 

 the starch it contains. The conclusion he 

 arrived at from his examination of starch 

 and chlorophyll, was that their origin was 

 fundamentally similar ; the exposure to 

 light made the principal difference in their 

 appearance. 



The Kev. A. W. McKay read a paper "On 

 Turdus migratori'us, showing, its resem- 

 blance to the thrushes of this country. 



Mr.^H. T. Stainton, F.L.S., read a short 

 paper ^ '\ 0i\ the extraordinary partiality 

 shown by insects of the genus Laverna for 

 plants of the order Onagracece." The 

 author called attention to the singular fact 

 that out of the limited number of eighteen 

 species of which the genus Laverna con- 

 sisted, no less than ten should derive their 

 nourishment when in the larva state 

 from plants of the family Onagracece, nor 

 was this a simple case of a different species 

 feeding on a different species of plant, for 

 severalj species fed on the same plant 

 though in different ways. Thus on 

 Epilobium^angustifoKum three larvse oc- 

 curred, one in the root, one in the terminal 

 shoot, and one in the leaves. On Epilo- 

 Mum hirsutiim five larvte occurred, one in 

 the root, one in the terminal shoot, and three 

 in the leaves. Again EpiloMum montanum 

 was fed on by tvvo species of Laverna, but 

 they fed differently from any of the pre- 

 ceding species. One, L. decorella, making 

 a gall in the stem, and feeding in the seed 

 pods. The fact was the more curious that 

 the remaining species of the genus Laverna 

 fed on plants of a very different kind. 



S. Moffatt, M.D. F.G.S., then read an 

 interesting paper on " Phosphorescence in 

 connection with Storms and Disease." 

 His remarks were of a statistical character, 

 bearing chiefly upon the luminosity of phos- 

 phorus under certain states of the atmosphere. 



