60 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
some ten thousand known species ; but, on further examination, 
Mr. H. Edwards decided it to be the active pupa of the second. He 
further made remarks on its tunnelling habits. 
The regular meeting of this Society was held on Friday evening, 
April 19, with President William Ashburner in the chair. 
Mr. Henry Mills, of Buffalo, New York, sent the Society a slide 
of Stephanodiscus Niagarce, which he had mounted as an opaque 
object, without washing. 
Dr. S. M. Mouser presented a slide mounted by him, with a 
section of the liver of man, showing cirrhosis. 
There were many additions to the library. 
Powell and Lealand’s new accessory for oblique illumination was 
exhibited by Mr. Hyde, and Dr. Mouser handed around for examina- 
tion a spatula which he had designed for the purpose of laying out 
and mounting sections of animal tissue, and which he had found to 
work finely. 
There were no papers read. 
The regular meeting of the San Francisco Microscopical Society 
was held on Thursday evening last,* President Ashburner in the chair. 
Col. C. Mason Kinne presented some curious forms of insect life, 
which were obtained by Mr. Thomas F. Eyre from a tree, and rose- 
bush under the same, growing at Mazatlan, Mexico. They were 
mistaken by the casual observer for the thorns which are the pro- 
verbial necessary evils of the sweet-smelling rose, from the fact of the 
thorax being raised into a sharp-pointed crest, which had the appear- 
ance and feeling of a veritable rose-thorn. Mr. Kiune remarked that 
the tree-hoppers ( Membracididce ) furnish many varieties of this peculiar 
form of raised thorax, but the variegated sharp crest curving upward 
and backward from the head of this, gives perhaps as beautiful and 
pointed an illustration as is often found of the genus. In the struggle 
for existence which has gone on for ages in the animal kingdom, the 
“ mimicry of nature ” plays an important part, and this little tree- 
hopper, from its appearance and known habits, is a good example of the 
theory. 
Mr. C. W. Banks exhibited a fine specimen of the Dioncea 
muscipula or Venus’ fly-trap, with some of the leaves expanded ; others 
fulfilling their purpose in the way of holding a number of unwary flies 
which had been enticed within the trap-like jaws of the plant. 
Mr. Banks also exhibited a box of slides which he had just received 
from Mr. Charles Zentmayer, of Philadelphia, who has succeeded in 
doing good work in the way of the double staining of vegetable tissues, 
as the objects were found to preserve the peculiarities of the cell 
structure, and the colour was distributed excellently. 
Mr. Hanks presented a slide mounted with crystals, to illustrate 
a paper by him, on a device to be used as a mechanical finger. This 
paper will be found printed at p. 33. 
* As usual, tlie report is transmitted without any date. — E d. ‘ M. M. J.’ 
