THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 11.] SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1856. [Price Id. 
SCIENTIFIC CONVIVIALITIES. 
Among the pleasures of Science may he 
counted many things which are not in 
themselves purely scientific : for instance, 
many friendships spring out of a simi- 
larity of scientific tastes. It would be 
curious to note how the friendships of 
scientific people frequently originate in 
curious chance rencontres. Perhaps the 
occasional excursions of a learned 
society contribute more than any other 
scheme ever propounded to bring about 
such meetings, and it is partly on this 
account that to share in the excursions 
of savans is to the young one of the 
greatest treats they can have. To see 
the elderly professor, or the middle-aged 
hard-working man of science, unbending 
on such occasions, putting aside his 
mantle of learning and — ologies, in- 
dulging in some merriment, which to the 
uninitiated must appear at first a some- 
what undignified proceeding, and crack- 
ing his jokes at each of the party, is a 
sight which many juveniles who have 
once seen will not easily forget. 
Friendships do not always spring up 
between those of the same age; and 
twenty, or even thirty years of difference 
in age, is sometimes found not incompa- 
tible with an enduring and intimate 
friendship. 
On Saturday next, the 21st instant, 
an excursion of entomologists to Reigate 
will take place. Mr. Saunders, the 
worthy President of the Entomological 
Society of London, has invited the mem- 
bers of the Society to a cold collation at 
the Swan Hotel, Reigate, on that day, 
and previous to the refreshing of the 
inner man the entomologists will peram- 
bulate the heaths, downs and woods in 
the neighbourhood, to the no small dis- 
may of the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera 
there. 
Trains leave London for the Reigate 
Town Station at 9.30 a. m., and 1.35, 
and 3.45 p. m., and no doubt many 
parties, little clusters as it were of ento- 
mologists, will go by each of those trains, 
and their further movements when they 
arrive at Reigate will be decided by their 
respective partialities for bees, bugs, 
beetles or butterflies. 
Mr. Brew'er will be in as great request 
as ever Figaro was, for independent of 
his local knowledge, knowing where 
there is a good sand-pit and where there 
is a nice cosey hedge, his botanical lore 
will be in great demand, for is he not 
the author of ‘The New Flora of Rei- 
gate?’ and will not that alone cause him 
to be continually having six questions 
simultaneously put to him ? and perhaps 
some droll mishaps will accrue from the 
questioners applying the wrong answers 
to themselves and acting accordingly. 
It may be possible that the President 
M 
