EXTRACTS OF PROCEEDINGS. 
CXV11 
February 11, 1879. 
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE. 
Rev. M. J. Berkeley in the Chair. 
Cocoa-nut Beetle. —Mr. MacLachlan reported on the beetle 
■which had been referred to him 'for examination at the last 
meeting, as having caused so much damage to the Cocoa-nut 
Palms in Zanzibar by eating and destroying the terminal hud 
or cabbage, and consequently killing the tree. The beetle in 
question is Oryctes monoceras. Dr. Kirk, who sent the 
specimen, stated that the insect appeared in Zanzibar after a 
hurricane, which is the more interesting, as the species has been 
found in Reunion by Dr. Coquerel, where, he says, it was so 
common at one time that fears were entertained that they 
would destroy every cocoa-nut palm on the island. Dr. Kirk 
said that this beetle only fed upon living vegetable matter, 
consequently if the trees affected were cut down at once the 
insect would die ; there was, however, one small species of the 
same genus in this country which feeds on dead vegetable 
matter, 0. nasicoris , being found in tan pits. Mr. MacLachlan 
recommended that the trees which appeared to he affected 
should be cut down and burnt. It was not difficult to tell 
them, for when the leaves unfold they are invariably imperfect.. 
He did not know any means of getting the grub out of the tree. 
Pentlandia miniata. —Col. Trevor Clarke exhibited bulbs of 
this plant which showed flower. They had been grown in the 
open ground beneath a light, and then dug up and removed to 
a greenhouse. He had found that the bulbs would not flower 
in the open border, but if dug up, as just stated, they then, 
flowered freely. 
Snowdrops. —Dr. Masters showed a flower of the Dunrobin 
Seedling, raised by Mr. Melville ; also an early flowering form, 
and some of the ordinary kind for comparison. All were 
planted, some in the open border, others in a cold frame, on 
September 17th. The early flowering variety was found in bloom 
on February 3rd, when the snow and ice melted away, so that 
the plants had been in flower for some time beneath the snow. 
The Dunrobin Seedling flowered on February 9th, while a dwarf 
k 
