96 



The Naturalist. 



been passed admitting ladies at about half the usual fee, and several had 

 already joined. The School Board had granted permission for the society 

 to use any of their schools for ramble meetings, free of expense ; and the 

 Corporation had promised to devote a portion of the new Beaumont Park 

 for the purpose of a Botanic Garden. The balance-sheet showed over 

 £12 in hand. A district '' was also defined, and a map ordered to be 

 printed and inserted in every member's book. The oflBcers for the next 

 year were elected as follows: — President, C. P. Hobkirk, F.L.S. ; cor- 

 responding sec, S. L. Mosley ; librarian, G. H. Crowther, &c. — S.L. M. 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. — Meeting, 

 Nov. 27th, the president, Mr. S. J. Capper, in the chair. — Mr. T. Von 

 Sobbe read an essay from a work on the North American Noctuidse, 

 entitled " A Colony of Butterflies," in which the writer referred to the 

 " white mountain butterfly " {(Eneis semidea) which inhabits the Wash- 

 ington Mountain, New England, at an altitude of never lower than 5,600 

 feet. Mr. A. Short read a paper on " Connecting Links," in which he 

 endeavoured to disprove the possibility of the occurrence of links 

 connecting the difierent orders of the animal kingdom. The paper gave 

 rise to considerable discussion. The hon. sec. Dr. John W. Ellis, read a 

 continuation of his " Coleoptera of the Liverpool District," (Part III.), 

 enumerating, besides additional localities for many species recorded in 

 Parts I. and II., 15 species of Geodephaga and Hydradephaga, now for 

 the first time recorded from the district ; after which he mentioned the 

 localities of 43 species of Palpicornia occurring in this neighbourhood. 

 During the conversazione Mr. E. P. Billington exhibited several locusts 

 from the West Indies ; Mr. Wilding and Dr. Ellis, specimens of the rare 

 beetle Anihiciis himacnlatus, captured at Crosby. 



Manchester Cryptogamic Society. — Meeting, Nov. 20th, Captain 

 CunlifFe in the chair. — The last part of the " New Moss Flora " by Dr. 

 Braithwaite, was presented to the society by the author. A number of 

 freshly-gathered mosses were placed upon the table, having been sent 

 from Orme's Head by Mr. W. Jones, of Llandudno ; some interesting 

 species were distributed amongst the members. The hon. sec exhibited 

 specimens of Hypnum virescens (Boulay), which had been gathered on the 

 Pyrenees, and also at Goodall, Malham, by John Nowell, in the year 

 1849, but were named as a variety of H. commutatum at that time. Dr. 

 J. B. Wood sent specimens of Myurella apiculata and Lescuricea striata in 

 fruit ; these were Continental specimens from his very complete herba- 

 rium of British and Continental mosses. Mr. Foster exhibited a specimen 

 of Phegopteris vulgaris, showing a very remarkable variation from the 

 typical form, the pinnse of the fronds being cut up into long narrow 

 lobes after the style of Polypodium vulgare, var. cornuhiense. If the 

 variety proves to be constant, it will make a nice addition to varieties of 

 British ferns in cultivation. He found this last August, in Patterdale. — 

 Thos. Rogers. 



