64 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



co7nmiinis on the day following. A happy ambiguity clothes the 

 records of the Water Crowfoot and the Dog Rose, which are safely 

 noted as Ranunculus aquatilis and Rosa canina. We should like to 

 verify the discovery of the ' Holly Fern ' at Howstean, and the 

 locality of Vicia lutea (mis-spelt, by-the-way) on May 30th. The 

 ' Spotted Orchis ' is not ' O. mascula^' the ' Oxlip ' at Copgrove is 

 scarcely likely to be the true ' P. elatior,' unless cultivated, and 

 the ? which follows ' Allium aftipeloprasum ' as the synonym for 

 ' Wild Garlic ' may no doubt be doubled. We notice that the plant 

 records, at least, are not confined to West Yorkshire, but apparently 

 extend at random to districts of quite different climatic and geologic 

 conditions. There is a good deal of typographical carelessness in 

 the proper names, especially the botanical ones. Dodecatheo7i ?nedia 

 is a probable misprint for D. Meadii, and might easily be pardoned if 

 it were not the sixth in as many successive lines. We are glad to 

 notice the commencement of a Flora of Phanerogamous plants and 

 a hst of the Aigge of West Yorkshire. As the former is only carried to 

 the end of the Cruciferae, we trust it is a pledge that th^ next volume 

 of Transactions will appear in less than another seven years. — H.E.F. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Entomological Society of London, January 

 19th, 1887, the following gentlemen were elected as officers and council for 1887: — 

 President, Dr. David Sharp, F.Z.S. ; Treasurer, Mr. Edward Saunders, F.L.S. ; 

 Secretaries, Mr. Herbert Goss, F.L.S., and the Rev. W. W. Fowler, M.A., 

 F.L.S.; Librarian, Mr. Ferdinand Grut, F.L.S. ; and as other members of 

 council, Messrs. Robert M'Lachlan, F.R.S., Gervase Mathew, R.N., F.L.S., 

 George T. Porritt, F.L.S., Edward B. Poulton, M.A., F.G.S., Osbert Salvin, 

 M.A., F.R.S., Henry T. Stainton, F.R.S., Samuel Stevens, F.L.S., and 

 J. Jenner Weir, F.L.S., F.Z.S. >oo< 



At the November meeting of the Entomological Society of London the 

 following gentlemen were elected Fellows, viz., Mr. Peter Cameron, of Sale, 

 Cheshire ; Mr. F. Archer, of Crosby, Liverpool ; and others. Mr. E. B. Poulton 

 exhibited a mass of minute crystals of formate of lead, caused by the action of the 

 secretion of the larva of Dic7-amira viniila upon suboxide of lead. He stated that 

 a single drop of the secretion had j^roduced the crystals which were exhibited ; 

 and he called attention to the excessively high percentage of formic acid which 

 must be present in the secretion, and to the pain, and probable danger, which 

 would result from being struck in the eye by the fluid which the larva had the 

 power of ejecting to a considerable distance. Mr. J. W. Slater read a paper on 

 'The relations of insects to flowers,' in which he stated that many flowers which 

 gave off" agreeable odours appeared not so attractive to insects as some other less 

 fragrant species ; and he stated that Petunias, according to his observations, were 

 comparatively neglected by bees, butterflies, and Diptera. Mr. Distant, Mr. 

 Stainton, Mr. Weir, Mr. Stevens, and the President took part in the discussion 

 which ensued, and stated that in their experience Petunias were often most attrac- 

 tive to insects. Mr. Stainton referred to the capture by himself of sixteen specimens 

 oi Sphinx convolvuli at the flowers of Petunias in one evening in 1846. Jonkeer 

 May, the Dutch Consul-General, asked whether the reported occurrence of the 

 Hessian Fly {Cecidotnyia destructor) in England had been confirmed. In reply 

 Mr. M'Lachlan stated he believed that several examples of an insect thought to be 

 the Hessian Fly had been bred in this country, but that everything depended upon 

 correct specific determination in such an obscure and difficult genus as Cecidomyia. 



% FEB 1037 Naturalist, 



