RepoPvTs of Societies. 



21 



Meeting 2nd July, Mr. Jos Tindall in the chair : in entomology, 

 Messrs. Mosley, EUis, ]\Iidgley, and Raistrick, showed the following 

 specimens taken recently in this district viz : — X. rurea var. comhiista, M. 

 fasciuncula, X. rurea, var. horealis. This is a very rare variety for this 

 district, and was exhibited by Mr. Mosley, who says that he has only seen 

 one other taken about here ; Euplexia lucipara, N. f estiva, jSf. pleda N. 

 augur, S. belgiaria, H. pisi, B. thalassina ; also a very variable series of 

 this moth ; JR. oleracea, H. dentina, M. rivata, A. gemina, A. rumicis, 

 •bIso var. salicis. Mr. J. Tindall laid on the table specimens of a longi- 

 corn beetle — an exotic insect that was taken from the logwood imported 

 into Huddersfield by Mr. Bedford, of Bradford-road. IMr. Jno. Robin- 

 son gave a lecture entitled " A few of the British Reptiles : or, the 

 Farmer's Mistake." His remarks were rendered very interesting by the 

 exhibition of a number of those reptiles which are the farmer's friends, 

 but which they (the farmers) so wantonly destroy. Mr. Mosley, in the 

 course of a few remarks on the lecture, pointed out the advisability oj 

 naturalists generally giving more notice to those families of insects which 

 are so injurious to our crops and produce of all descriptions. He also 

 showed how the children of our large schools of to-day might be taught to 

 know these insects, and also their destroyers. 



Manchester Cryptoga^iic Society. — Monthly meeting, June 18th, 

 Mr. Thomas Brittain (in the absence of the president, through indis- 

 position) in the chair. — Mr. W. H. Pearson gave a report on the 

 hepaticas collected by the members of the society during their excursion 

 into Wales at Easter. The party ascended Cader Idris to a considerable 

 altitude, in search of a rare Jnngermannia, which, however, they were 

 unable to find. On the way the commoner hepaticje, such as Nardia 

 emarginata, Scapania undulata, and others of rarity, were met with. At 

 the highest point reached they met with, sparingly, Schisma adunca, an 

 alpine species. Mr. Pearson continued : — " Saturday we spent at 

 Tyn-y-groes, probably the richest locality for hepaticse yet known, in 

 England or Wales. Here, in the woods, growing in moderate abundance, 

 is Adelanthus decijnens — the only known station, except Ireland, for this 

 great European rarity. Dr. Carrington first recognised it here, as Welsh, 

 two years ago. On the precipitous banks of the little stream Avhich flows 

 through the wood, fifty yards from the inn, grows in rich luxuriance, 

 hanging like delicate festoons from the larger hepaticse and mosses, the 

 Lepidozia which Dr. Spruce has published as L, Peavsoni — a compliment 

 hardly deserved by the collector, who first passed it over as a strange 

 form— ' in linked sweetness long drawn out.' On the soft sandstone on 

 the walls near the inn grows the Nardia adusta of Spruce. Our party 

 searched diligently the banks and rocks of Rhayadr Dhu, a spot peculiarly 

 rich in hepatics. Here we collected Radula aquilegia, B. vohita, Lejeunia 

 hamatifolia, L. ovafa ; on the trees, Plagiocliila tvidenticulata, Madigo- 

 hryum deflexum, and others of less rarity. On Monday, for a short time 



