some time past at the Bethnal Green Branch Museum, was intended by Mr. Murray as a type museum for instruction in agricultural districts. Its formation had occupied the greater part of his energies for yours past, and his last few days at work wore devoted to its completion. He died on the 9th January,
Thomas Vernon Wollaston.—This well known Entomologist died on the 4th inst., at his residence, Teignmouth. We copy the following from Nature:—"To students of British Entomology, Mr. Wollaston is best known by bis early papers in the Zoologist and Stainton’s Entomologists' Anneal and Weekly Intelligencer, and by his revision of Atomaria in Transactions of the Entomological Society, 1877. He published many descriptive and analytical papers, almost exclusively on Coleoptera, in the above-named publications, the Journal of Entomology, and the Entomologists' Monthly Magazine; but his magnum opus is the well-known 'Insecta Maderensia,' published in 1854, the results of his sojourns in Madeira, to which he first went in 1817, The acquisition of fresh material compelled him to write his 'Coleoptera Atlantidum,’ an arduous, critical work of nearly 706 pages, followed in 1867 by the ‘Coleoptera Hesperidum', a valuable descriptive account of the species of the Cape Verde Archipelago, visited in 1866. His last contribution to geographical entomology, 'Coleoptora Sanetæ-Helene,' 1877, contains a multiplicity of unexpected developments."
Leicestershire Flora.—Many years ago Mr. T. R. Potter, of Wymesweld, projected a New History of Leicestershire. For this work the late Rev. Andrew Bloxam prepared and supplied to Mr. Potter a copious list of wild plants found in Leicestershire. The history was never issued, and it Is unknown what became of Mr. Bloxam's MS. Was it sold, with other papers, after Mr. Potter's death? If so, to whom, and who is now the possessor of the papers? Any information on the subject communicated to the Editors of this magazine will be gladly received.
Aquraria.—It may be interesting to some of our readers to know that Mr. W. A. Lloyd, of the Crystal Palace Aquarium, is not only engaged in preparing the volume to which we referred on page 54, but is also writing a series of very plain and clear articles (which will probably extend to eight or ten) on the management of Aquaria for the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, (Ward and Lock.) The first appeared in the number for December last, and the second in the February number. The articles, though written minty for the use of ladies, are, of course, equally adapted to anyone who may be desirous of understanding the how, why, and wherefore of Aquarium management.
West London Entomolocical Society.—At the weekly meeting of the society, on February 6th, Mr. J. Smith exhibited a very extraordinary variety of L. conigera, showing all the markings and colour of the upper wing on the left under wing, particularly the white central spot, which made it appear as if the under wing had been folded up on the upper one and taken the exact impression. It was taken at the Welsh Harp, near London, 1876, by the exhibitor.
Phenological Observations.-The Rev.T. A. Preston read an interesting paper on this subject before the Meteorological Society on December 19th, 1877. He stated that the order of flowering had been the same in 1877 as in 1876. Plants begin to flower first in the south-west of England, and thence in gradation up to the north of Lincolnshire. Damp appears to act more powerfully than cold in retarding the flowering of some plants. The year 1877 was an unfavourable one for vegetation generally. The bitter cold of May checked the growth of plants, and by the autumn there was little mew wood, and that not properly ripened.
