clvi
Journal of Proceedings.
Mr. White also exhibited two fine specimens of Spilosoma walkeri,
the rare variety of S. lubricepeda, both ♂ and ♀, together with examples
of the normal form of the species, and its congeners (Arctia
mendica, menthrastri, and urticae). These varieties came, he
believed, from North Britain, but unfortunately their history is un-
recorded. There is a pood woodcut of this form on the title-page of
Mr. A. H. Swinton's ' Insect Variety.' He also produced another instance
of the moth, Biston hirtaria,* with wings on one side only, similar to
that shown by him at a previous meeting. This one, however, was a
♀ and showed the remnant of a wing-membrane. With it was placed a
specimen having very minute wings (a ♀, not unlike one of its sub-
apterous allies), but this one was a " home-bred" individual, so may be
merely a cripple, and is not, therefore, to be confounded with the other
two instances of natural occurrence. Both of the latter had evidently
only just emerged from the pupa.
Mr. English exhibited specimens of the Morel (Morchella esculenta),
from woods near Cambridge, and some species of Sphagnum and other
mosses from Epping Forest.
Mr. W. Barley exhibited specimens of the common Wallflower, which,
growing ou a poor soil, had produced a multiplicity of pistils in each
flower. He also referred to the common Teazle, and asked what was the
object of the peculiar arrangement by which considerable quantities of
water were held up in the cups formed by closely approximated leaves.
Mr. W. Cole referred the speaker to a paper ou the subject by Mr. Francis
Darwin.
The President then gave a short account of the strata met with in
the new excavations at the Royal Albert Docks, which he said he had
visited earlier in the year in the company of Mr. Whitaker, and on the
28th of that month with Mr. W. Cole. The excavations were, like Tilbury
Docks, in recent alluvium, and, as at Tilbury, the beds disclosed consisted
of clay or mud, with interstratified peaty beds, above sand and gravel.
The lowest formation reached, the Chalk, was at an average depth of
43 ft. to 46ft. below the marsh level at Albert Docks, while at Tilbury
it was some 60 ft. to 70 ft. beneath. But there wag a marked difference
between the peaty beds seen by the Essex Field Club in the spring of
1884, at Tilbury, and those now visible at Albert Dock. For at Tilbury,
on the occasion of their visit, they saw two peaty bands composed of the
remains of reeds and other plants that had grown in situ, the lowest
peaty band only—not then visible—being made up of drifted tree-stems
and vegetable debris. But the peaty beds interbedded with the clay
and mud at Albert Docks were all made up of drifted material, and the
bedding was much more irregular than at Tilbury. They had been
* The young larvae of Bitten hirtaria, I have observed, upon emergence from the
egg, are quite different in their colouration from the full-grown larvae. By the
aid of a lens they are found to be white with black markings, very like the larvae
of Abraxas grossulariata.—W. White.