390 
otiier modes was shown to he held as sacred to Apollo, tho 
parent of the art that finds a balm for every malady; and 
he who wore a garland of it was considered safe from 
the flash of the lightning. A plant believed to be gifted 
with such powers might well be selected as an emblem 
of the prosperous wicked; for with all such powers, yet 
if unguarded by God, the time, as pointed out hy the 
Psalmist, will come when he will be sought for, “ but he 
cannot be found.” 
That the Psalmist may have included the Bay Tree 
with others under the general term Mzeracli , is rendered 
the more probable from its being a tree readily within 
his knowledge; for it is a native of the Levant, and 
other parts of Asia, as well as of southern Europe. 
The August Meeting of the Entomological Society was 
held on the 7th inst., H. T. Stainton, Esq., V. P., in the 
Chair. Amongst tho donations announced were addi¬ 
tions to the library, received from the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, tho Natural History Society of 
Geneva, and the Entomological Societies of France and 
Stettin. 
Mr. Boyd exhibited two beautiful specimens of the 
rare moth Limacodes Asellus, taken in the New Forest, 
in July; and Mr. Ingpen, a large collection of Hymenop- 
terous and Dipterous insects, from South Australia. 
Also an exotic wasp’s nest, of moderate size, tho exterior 
envelop of which was proved, from a microscopical 
examination of its texture, to bo entirely composed of 
fungus, and not df woody-flbro, which was generally 
considered to be the naturo of the material employed by 
wasps in the construction of their nests. He also 
exhibited a portion of the interior of one of the fine old 
well-known Cedars of Lebanon, in Chelsea Physic 
Garden, which was entirely coated with a fungus similar 
to that employed in the formation of the wasp's nest. 
Mr. W. Wing also stated, in confirmation of this view 
of tho subject, that he had observed a wasp busily 
engaged in scraping off the woolly matter from the 
common Mullein. 
Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a beautiful drawing of a re¬ 
markable variety of tho larva of the Death's Head Moth, 
having a large patch of white on the back of tho an¬ 
terior segments of the body. Mr. Westwood stated that 
a precisely similar variety had been figured long ago in 
Fuessly’s “ Archives of Entomology.” Mr. Stevens also 
exhibited a specimen of tho very rare and recently- 
discovered Trachodes Idspidus, belonging to the family 
Curculiouidao, taken near Leicester, by Mr. Plant. A 
single specimen only had been previously discovered in 
tho New Forest. 
Mr. Boddy exhibited a living spccimon of tho rare 
Luduis ferrugineus, belonging to the family El ate rid to, 
and the largest known British species, together with its 
larva, found in rotten Oaks in Windsor Forest. Mr. 
Westwood noticed that the larva differed from those of 
the majority of tho family, in having the last segment 
of the body smooth, and destitute of the notched horny 
August 22. 
appendages, thus closely resembling the common Wire- 
Worm, which belongs to the same family. 
Mr. Moore sent a second supply of the new Irish 
burnet moth, Anthrocera Minos, for distribution among 
the members. Mr. Hogan sent, from Dublin, for 
exhibition, a Lepidopterous larva and pupa, from which 
a number of Splueruc, a parasite fungus, had sprouted; 
they were very slender, and about an inch and-a-half 
long, and several of them had shrivelled up; unfor¬ 
tunately, nono of them had developed their organs of 
fructification, so that it was not possible to determine 1 
their species. 
Mr. Douglas exhibited a number of specimens of 
Grapholitha Nisana, reared from the catkins of the \ 
Willow and Sallow; by which means he had been 
able to prove tliat the species Rliomhifasciana and 
Sticticana were only varieties of one species. 
Mr. Westwood exhibited, from the Economic Museum 
of Botany, at Kew, somo specimens of a new species of 
clear-winged Sphinx, the caterpillars of which had fed 
in the interior of largo woody galls upon the North 
American species of Oak, Quercus palustris, in company 
with tho true inhabitant of the Gall; specimens of the 
ompty chrysalis-case were still to be seen sticking 
half out of the Gall. He also exhibited specimens 
and drawings of a small but very remarkable beetle, 
recently discovered in ants’ nosts in Brazil, by Mr. 
Bates, forming the typo of a new genus, which he 
proposed to name Gnostus formicieela. He also described 
the curious transformations of the singular Evania 
appendigasta, which is parasitic in tho egg capsules 
of the common Cockroach. 
Mr. Curtis read a number of detached notes, on two 
now British species of Hemerohidic ; correction of the 
nomenclature of tho species of the same family, figured 
in bis “British Entomology;” on nomenclature in j 
Entomology, and its abuses; on the recent capture of 
various rare insects; on the species of Tortricidm which 
attack Fir trees; and on their parasites. 
THE BLIGHTS OF 1854. 
I do hope that our scientific friends will pardon me I 
for using a heading so lax and indefinite in character, 
but tho truth is, that what the gardening world terms 
“ blight,” by a sort of conventionality, is, with all our 
boasted march of intellect, ill understood up to this 
period. In fact, the evils that beset cither the fruit and 
the vegetable garden, or the farm, are so numerous, so 
various, and, moreover, have so much multiplied during 
the last seven years, that the most experienced cul¬ 
tivators are puzzled, and marvol what may be the 
upshot of this accumulation of evils. All this plainly 
tells us how much we' have to learn ; how much re- j 
mains for our naturalists, and those who make insect 
life their peculiar study to investigate. And, certainly, 
in those stirring times, tho thorough investigation of 
the habits of the insect world may not be left to 
gardeners: such arc not mere closet men; and the duties 
attached to their profession are so multifarious, and so 
much increased, that if a man can produce a really good 
garden —one that is equal to the demands of the day— 
it may bo affirmed that he has little time left for the 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
