234 
president’s address. 
read us a paper on the Swan-pit at St. Helen’s, which will appear 
in the ‘Transactions.’ Mr. Corder exhibited two British Crocuses, 
G. nudiflora and speciosa, from Shrewsbury and Warwick re- 
spectively. Mr. Edwards also exhibited a specimen of the rare 
Longicorn Astinomus aedilis, found in Norwich, and communicated 
a short note on the species. 
At the October meeting Mr. Bidwell exhibited a slab of 
Itacolumite or Flexible Sandstone, a variety which, as he informed 
us, is met with in Brazil (from a mountain in which country, 
Itacolumi, it takes its name), in Georgia, in North Carolina, and 
in India, and is flexible only in those parts which have been 
affected by the atmosphere. The mobility is due to the arrange- 
ment of its particles, which are hinged together, the projections of 
one fitting into hollows of another, while clear spaces between 
allow of a certain amount of play. A paper was also read on the 
Diamond-back Moth, Plutella cruciferarum, pointing out that in 
the destructive abundance of this species we had a case, not of a 
foreign invasion, but merely of the unusual plenty of a resident 
always abundant, but harmless except when in overwhelming 
numbers. 
At the November meeting no special paper was read beyond the 
“Notes for the Month” contributed by Mr. Patterson of Yarmouth; 
and I may be allowed to take this opportunity of expressing the 
gratitude which we owe to Mr. Patterson for his most interesting 
and often valuable notes. Extracts from them will appear in the 
‘ Transactions ; ’ but I feel that the details of matters of interest 
connected with birds, animals, and fish thus regularly supplied, 
and freely illustrated by characteristic sketches, have added greatly 
to the pleasure of our meetings during the year. 
At the January meeting a paper was read from Mr. Clement 
Reid, F.L.S., of the Geological Survey, on the Natural History of 
Isolated Ponds ; giving details of the plants and animals inhabit- 
ing them, which were doubtless conveyed thither mainly by the 
agency of birds. 
The last meeting was held on February 23rd, when a valuable 
paper on the distribution of the Red-backed Shrike in Great Britain 
