52 
Notes and Comments. 
PALAEONTOLOGY. 
The Palaeontographical Society is still suffering from the 
effects of the war, and its volume LXXIII., recently to hand, 
is smaller than usual. But it is well worth the small sub- 
scription of one guinea, and we hope the appeal of the Hon, 
Secretary (Dr. A. Smith Woodward) for further members will 
meet with the response it deserves. The volume contains 
three important and well illustrated monographs, viz : (i) 
‘ The Pliocene Mollusca/ by F. W. Harmer ; (2) ‘ Ordovician 
and Silurian Bellerophontacea/ by F. R. Cowper Reed ; and 
(3) ‘ Carboniferous Insects/ by Herbert Bolton. In each 
monograph many north country species are figured and 
described. 
POLLINATION OF PRIMULAS. 
At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society of London, Mr. 
Miller Christy read a paper on ‘ The Problem oHhe Pollination 
of our British Primulas/ He dealt with our three well-known 
species ( Primula vulgaris, P. veris, and P. elatior ) , all ex- 
tremely abundant in Britain, though the last-named locally 
only. The question as to the insect or insects which pollinate 
these flowers was first raised by Darwin, just sixty years ago, 
in a series of papers read before the Linnean Society. That 
question is still unanswered, in spite of much subsequent 
field-observation and discussion. Mr. Christy enumerated his 
own numerous observations, extending over forty years, in the 
form of three tables, and further cited all known observations 
recorded by others. He discussed also the relation necessarily 
existing between the depths of the corolla-tubes of the flowers 
and the length of the tongues of insects known to visit the 
flowers. 
NIGHT-FLYING MOTHS. 
The observations showed that about thirty species of insect 
had been seen to visit or frequent the flowers of the three 
Primulas. A small proportion of these (namely Hymenoptera, 
Diptera, and Lepidoptera) had long tongues, and were certainly 
able to effect pollination in the regular manner. Their visits 
to the flowers were, however, so comparatively rare that it was 
impossible to suppose they effected pollination to an extent 
adequate for the perpetuation of any of the three species of 
Primula. Most other insect visitors were short -tongued bees, 
totally unable to effect pollination at all ; and, as these visited 
the flowers only to steal their pollen, their visits were actually 
detrimental, rather than beneficial, to the plants. Yet other 
insects, chiefly Coleoptera, frequented, rather than visited, 
the flowers in considerable abundance ; and these seem quite 
capable of pollinating them, though in an irregular manner, 
which one cannot suppose to have been intended. Thus far, 
therefore, the problem remained unsolved, and it was necessary 
to search for some other agency for the normal and regular 
Naturalist 
