AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 16, 1857. 
166 THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
taken on the Surrey side of the Hammersmith Sus¬ 
pension Bridge ; Aleloe brevicollis, neai Plymouth, 
Chlcenius niyricornis, variety; Scop a; us, two species; 
Euryuca acuminata ; and Tropidares sepicola, taken by 
Mr. Plant. 
Mr. Dillon Croker presented a case of Indian Locusts; 
also a very elegant Musquito Flapper from Constan¬ 
tinople. The President stated that similar instruments 
were in use both in India and the United States for the 
same purpose. 
Mr. Robinson exhibited a drawing of the larva of 
Polyommatus A rtaxerxes. 
Mr. Westwood exhibited a new species of Flea of 
gigantic size, being at least twenty times the size of the 
common species, and which he proposed to name Pul ex 
j imperator. He had received a single specimen from 
Mr. Bold, which had been found dead in abed at Gates- 
| head. He also exhibited the dead body of a Sphinx, 
apparently that of Sphinx Atropos, which he had re- 
| cently found partially imbedded in a honey comb taken 
out of a hive, the inhabitants of which had gradually 
died off during the winter and spring, although there 
was a large supply of honey. The queen had also 
disappeared; but whether the presence of this giant 
! Motli (which had evidently been killed by the bees, 
the queen to leave the hive there was no means of 
I determining. 
Mr. Trimen exhibited a very remarkable tissue of 
considerable extent found inside the hollow trunk of a 
tree in South America, and apparently the work of some 
species of Caterpillar. The texture exhibited a great 
i number of parallel lines, and on examination with a 
microscope its structure agreed with that of the cocoons 
of various Moths. 
Major Yardon exhibited several very curious insects 
brought from central Africa by Dr. Livingston. One 
of these, called Tampan by the natives, is a species of 
Mite of considerable size, which eats its way into the 
flesh between the toes of the natives, and sucks their 
blood, at the same time instilling a poison, the effects of 
which gradually ascend the legs till they affect the 
j bowels, producing vomiting and purging, with fever. 
i Also, several larvae of a Beetle which, on being crushed, 
S emits a poisonous fluid, into which the Bushmen dip their 
arrows. Also, a large and very singular Cimicideous 
insect belonging to the genus Phyllomorpha , and the 
larva of another Coleopterous insect which buries its 
j head in the sand, leaving exposed its forked tail, with 
i which it seizes any unlucky insect which may come near 
it, or be attracted by its movements. 
Mr. Shepherd exhibited the rare Moth, Mixodia 
Hawkerana, reared from the Sea Spurge. 
Mr. Ianson made some further remarks in opposition 
to Mr. Smith’s observations relative to his paper on the 
nomenclature of a species of Bledius. 
Air. W estwood also opposed Mr. Tanson’s statements. 
A paper by Air. Newman was read on the sterility of 
the females of the autumnal broods of double-brooded 
Lepidoptera, the author asserting that in such cases 
their abdomens are nothing more than a hollow 
cylinder, destitute of eggs or any rudiments of the 
ovaries. 
Mr. Grant read some notes on the entomology of 
Canada, and Air. Douglas the translation of a memoir 
on the transformations of Trachys pyymcea from 
Guerin's Bevue Eoologique, 
THE CHISWICK FLOWER SHOW.—June 3. 
{Continued from paye 158.) 
ATr. Bye, gardener to G. S. W r intle, Esq., Hucclecote, 
Gloucestershire, sent two collections of remarkably varie¬ 
gated and fine-leaved plants for such a distance from 
London, with six Ancec'tochilids. In these the old 
Sanseviera was called a Bromelia, and the Elceodendron 
pertusum a Scindopsis. His Canna discolor was the 
finest plant of it that ever was exhibited. 
Mr. Cutbusli, of Barnet, followed with fresh, sizeable j 
specimens of the same stamp. His Begonia picta has 
been referred lately by Sir AY. Hooker to B. Griffithii. 
The true picta is a very different plant, which I described 
from the Crystal Palace in Air. Jackson’s collection. 
Next to these stood a fine collection of well-grown 
Ferns from the Alessrs. Jackson, beginning with a huge 
plant of Blechnmn Co rcovadense, A ny i op ter is evetica, Gym- j 
nogramma pulchella , Uictyoglossvm crinitum, Asplenium 
Balanyerii, Sagenia alata, with others quite as good. 
Air. A r eitch followed with another grove, a grove of j 
Ferns, with the Dicksonia antarctica and Cibotium J 
Schiedei at the back, Thyrsopteris elegans and Gleichenia 
microphylla matching with Platycerium grande. Between 
them on the second stage and in front Platycerium, 
alcicorne and biforme, new this season, with Todea 
Fraseri, Balantium culcitum , a new Davallia , and the 
newish powdered Gymnoyramma argyrostiyma from 
Peru. Then splendid plants of Ancectochilids from the 
same, and on to them a stand-up fight in Ferns from 
Air. Parker. Here stood the finest plant in England of 
Gleichenia flabellata, the Fern which made the greatest 
sensation at the Crystal Palace, matched with Cyathea 
excelsa and Cibotium Schiedei — three most splendid 
Ferns to back any collection of them. Gheilanthes picta, 
var. Ellisiana, had a fine soft, silvery tinge; Davallia 
tenuifolia, another elegant Fern; Dicksonia, Cyathea, 
Pteris, Platycerium, and others, with a fine plant of the 
good old Gheilanthes lendigera. 
Air. Linden, of Brussels, had a collection of very rare 
plants, which finished the circuit of the conservatory. 
One called Cyanophyllum maynifcum had a truly mag¬ 
nificent leaf of Alelastomad formation; Bameriaaryentea, 
a broad-leaved, soft-wooded tree or shrub; and two dwarf 
Marantas, called fasciata and pulchella. 
Outside among the tents I missed some collections 
which were particularly good at the Crystal Palace. The 
first was Air. Colyer’s plants, the first in England of the 
largest size. His Pimelea spectabiUs is now as big as the 
top of the monument, and as a monument of skill it was 
sunk in the very centre of the Palace, with a row r of 
exquisitables round it. The Fuchsias, the Hippeastrums, 
and some Pelargoniums were also missed. 
Air. Dods, gardener to Sir J. Cathcart, carried the 
grand prize for fifteen stove and greenhouse plants 
against two of the best plant growers in England, the 
neighbours and neighbourly Mr Green and Mr. Carson, 
proving that “ blood” is as good as money to make the 
mare go. His blue Leschenaultia was the most difficult 
plant to manage in his whole collection, and it was in 
grand style, as were the rest before he could beat such 
