452 
Notes. 
[June, 
nedlar, and are independent of the visits of insedts. He main- 
tains that, in nectariferous dioecious plants, insedts do not visit 
the male flowers first and the female flowers afterwards, the 
greater visibility of the former being indifferent. One and the 
same flower may be visited in various manners by the same 
insedt. The form of a flower may be altered without sensibly 
modifying the visit of insedts. Insedts may very often colledt 
the nedtar of flowers without effecting their fecundation ; the 
insedt-guests of one and the same flower differ according to the 
quantity of nedtar which it produces, and, as this quantity varies 
with altitude and latitude, the insedt-guests of one and the same 
species differ in different countries. We cannot conclude, from 
fadts observed, that the colour of flowers, the shape of the 
corollas, &c., are arranged for the exclusion of insedts not 
adapted for cross-fertilisation. In short, there is no reason for 
admitting a reciprocal adaptation between insedts and flowers. 
There are, further, nedtaries without external nedtar and all in- 
termediate stages. There are also numerous nectariferous 
tissues unconnected with flowers. The nectariferous tissues, 
floral or extra-floral, whether they emit a liquid or not, are spe- 
cial nutritive reserves, in diredt relation with the life of the 
plant. [Without seeking to anticipate the discussion to which 
this paper must give rise, we cannot avoid pointing out that the 
fadts detailed by M. Bonnier are by no means incompatible with 
the theory of a mutual adaptation between flowers and insedts.] 
A writer in “ Science Gossip ” calls attention to the peculiar 
position of the mouth in sharks as very difficult of explanation 
on the Natural Selection hypothesis. 
The small annual sum allowed for the purchase of specimens 
for the zoological department of the British Museum is to be 
reduced from £1200 to £900. 
An anti-vivisedtion hubbub has sprung up in Germany,, and 
has now reached a dangerous stage. Unless our Teutonic 
colleagues are watchful they will some day find research fettered 
as it is amongst us. 
A collection of Lepidoptera from the mouth of the Amur 
River, exhibited at the February meeting of the Entomological 
Society, was strikingly European in general character, some of 
the species being even identical. 
M. Lichtenstein has communicated to the Academy of Sciences 
an account of Ritsemia pupifera , a kind of cochineal insedt 
living on the elm, and holding an intermediate position between 
the Cocci and the Phylloxerse. In August there appear, on the 
bark of the elm, small red unisexual lice, with six-jointed an- 
tennae ; they evolve a cottony matter, and lay in it not eggs, but 
pupae. From these are developed, in the following May, the bi- 
sexual individuals, the males of which are apterous, having 
nine-jointed antennae and no rostrum. The females, which 
