Linrusan Society. 
385 
Mr. Miers states that he offers the above view of the floral enve- 
lopes (which he regards as consisting of 2 sepals and 6 petals) with 
much deference, especially as that which Sir W. J. Hooker has taken 
of them is in conformity with the usual arrangement of the family. 
It appears to him, however, to be warranted by the fact that the 
two broad external leaflets (which he considers as the calyx) form 
one entire whorl, being continuous at their origin with the margin 
of the cup of the torus, while the insertion of the six narrower seg- 
ments (petals) is also upon one line, within the margin of the same 
cup ; the cicatrix of the calyx being marked by a clean line on the 
margin of the cup, while the remains of the claws of the petals are 
distinctly seen within the same margin forming so many projecting 
indurated teeth. This (as regards the calyx) is analogous with what 
occurs in Busbeckia, Endl., Steriphoma, Spr., and Morisonia, Plum., 
in all of which only 2 sepals exist, or an entire envelope bursting 
into two valves. To reconcile the apparent anomaly, the author 
would consider the floral envelope oi Atamisquea either as formed of 
three series, each consisting of two normal parts, the innermost series 
appearing double in consequence of the division of its lobes to their 
point of insertion ; (and this view is supported by the cohesion of 
the upper and lower pairs of petals at their base when pulled away 
from the torus, while a distinct interval is manifest between each of 
these pairs and the shorter lateral petals ;) or he would (still taking 
the same view with regard to the composition of the upper and lower 
pairs of petals) regard them as forming with the two lateral petals a 
whorl of four parts, and suppose the outer series also (the sepals) to 
be normally four in number, united by adhesion into two. This 
last view he considers to be rendered somewhat the more probable 
by its approximating more nearly to the usual structure, and by the 
fact that each of the sepals when dried readily splits down the middle 
by a clean line into two distinct segments. 
The paper w^as illustrated by detailed illustrations of the structure 
of the plant. 
February 1. — Robert Brown, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 
J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. &c., exhibited specimens of the silk 
spun by the caterpillars of the new Indian silk moth, Bombyx Hut- 
toni, Westw. (figured in the ‘Cabinet of Oriental Entomology,’ pi. 12. 
fig. 4), communicated to him by Capt. T. Hutton. After stating the 
importance of the discovery of a new and valuable product of this 
nature in our foreign territories, and that the ‘Transactions of the 
Linnean Society ’ contained a valuable paper on East Indian silk 
insects by Gen. Hardwicke, Mr. Westwood observed that the insect 
discovered by Capt. Hutton was congeneric with the real silk insect, 
Bombyx Mori, a native of China, whereas those described in the 
Transactions of the Society belonged to another genus, Satumia, 
and that consequently the silk spun by the new species was likely 
to approximate nearer to that of B. Mori in its qualities than that 
of the large Indian Saturnice. The new species had been disco- 
vered to be a native of the hills about Mussooree, on the south- 
Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. i. 26 
