22 



The Natuealist. 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society. — MontMy 

 meeting, June 25th. Mr. S. L. Mosley, of Huddersfield, read a paper 

 entitled " Natural History Education," in which he alluded to the desi- 

 rability of a more extended knowledge of Natural History subjects, 

 especially of botany and entomology, believing as he did that a large amount 

 of the injury done to food-crops, &c., through insect agency, might be 

 prevented or diminished by a more extended knowledge of the life 

 histories of the insects themselves. He suggested that lessons on Natural 

 History might be taught in board schools with great advantage to the 

 scholars ; and he alluded to the excursions of the Huddersfield Board 

 School children, conducted by himseK, and to the great interest taken in 

 these matters by most of the children. A number of interesting entomo- 

 logical exhibits were shown during the conversazione which followed. 



Manchester Cryptogamic Society. — Monthly meeting, Mr, W. H. 

 Pearson, president, in the chair. — The hon. secretary brought before the 

 notice of the society a new British moss which had been recently sent tO' 

 him by Mr. Bos well, of Oxford, who had determined its identity with 

 the Bryum gemmiparum oi He Notaris (see Naturalist, vol. viii., p. 185). 

 The secretary also exhibited specimens of Mylia Taylori with colesules, 

 collected near Bala last month. Mr. George Davis, of Brighton, sent- 

 specimens of Leptodon Smithii, in fruit, for distribution. Mr. Cash also- 

 distributed specimens of Myurella fiilacea, which he had recently 

 collected at Ingleborough. Mr. J ames Percival sent a living specimen of 

 Cinclidium stygium in fruit from Malham, and in his letter recorded the- 

 rfinding of Cypripedium Calceoliis. — Thos. Rogers, Hon. Sec. 



Manchester Cryptogamic Society. — At the usual monthly meeting,^ 

 Dr. Carrington, F.P.S.E., in the chair, Mr. James Cash- exhibited a- 

 specimen of the rare British moss, Gijmnostomum calcartum in fruit,, 

 which had been gathered during the present month in Monsal Dale,. 

 Derbyshire, by Mr. G. A. Holt. Dr. Carrington placed upon the table 

 a large number of letters from eminent cryptogamic botanists in the- 

 earlier part of the present century, who had been in correspondence with 

 the celebrated Lancashire botanist, Edward Hobson. Many of the letters; 

 had reference to the collection of mosses made by Hobson at that time,, 

 copies of which are now in our Free Reference Library and Cheetham 

 College. Dr. Carrington interested the members most pleasantly for the 

 rest of the evening by reading letters from George Caley, W. Wilson,. 

 Dr. Greville, Sir W. Hooker, Lyell, Bree, Schleicher, Dr. Taylor, James^ 

 Dalton, and Sir J. W. Jardine. The letters were placed in the hands of 

 Mr. J. Cash for compilation and future reference. — T. Rogers, Hon. Sec. 



Port Elizabeth Naturalists' Society. — The ordinary meeting of this. 

 Society on June 7th — Mr. C. R. Read presiding— was entirely devoted to 

 the exhibition of specimens. Mr. Farquhar brought with him a few 

 coleoptera, and a very remarkable stunted crab, from the mouth of 

 Shark's River. The chairman shewed a fine marine shell (Scalaria), and 

 Mr. Leslie samples of soil from De Beer's Mine. The secretary exhibited 



