NOTE. I had not an opportunity of examining a sufficient number of specimens, of the common Lackey or Apple moth, which is so destructive to the foliage of the trees round Montreal, to determine with accuracy the species to which it belonged, until after my article on "insects injuring the crops in the vicinity of Montreal" was in type. Having lately compared recently captured specimens with the descriptions in Dr. Fitch's reports, I have come to the conclusion that it is Clisiocampa Sylvatica, (Harris) and not C. americana as previously stated. The date of the article also was accidentally omitted. It was communicated to the Natural History Society, at its monthly meeting, June 29th. To enable non-entomologists to recognise that useful insect Calosoma calidum, I subjoin a short notice and discription of it.

This fine beetle belongs to the first division (Geodephaga) of the order of Coleoptera. The geodephaga or carnivorous ground beetles are so termed from their habit of living principally on the ground, and feeding in all their stages on other insects. The division is divided into two families. 1st. Cicindelidæ or Tiger Beetles, several species of which are very abundant about Montreal, flying in the sun on sandy places; and 2nd. Carabidae which includes all the other geodephagous insects. There are a vast number of species in this country, all more or less useful in keeping down the numbers of noxious insects; but the present, conspicuous from its large size and great strength, is the most beneficial to us. The genus Calosoma to which it belongs contains many large species and most are splendidly ornamented with metallic tints. A great number of the Carabidæ are destitute of wings under the elytra, but this species and the rest of its genus are amply provided with the organs of flight, which enables them to follow their insect prey with greater facility on trees as well as on the ground. CALOSOMA CALIDUM, copper spot carab; black, all the joints of the antennæ except the four basal ones clothed with piceous hairs; sides of the thorax and elytra minutely punctured; the punctures green; elytra deeply punctate-striated, each with three rows of deep impressions, and one or two (sometimes more) at the base near the suture, of a brilliant copper colour. Length from ten to twelve lines. Professor Emmon's figure in his work on the Insects of New York is so bad that it is impossible to identify it.

Montreal, July 23, 1857.

W. S. M. D'URBAN.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science.The advent of the distinguished men who constitute the members of this society, and the other illustrious foreigners who have been invited to meet them in the city of Montreal in August next, will be one of the most important and interesting events that has ever occured in Canada. We well remember when, at a meeting of the Council of the Natural History Society held during the winter of 1856, the propriety of appointing a delegation to represent the Society at the Albany meeting of the Association, was suggested and proposed. And when its present President, Mr. Principal Dawson, hinted that Montreal would do well to invite the savans to make that city their next place of meeting, we recollect the doubts that were expressed and the difficulties that were thought to lie in the way of such an offer being accepted. It was said or example, that the American members would never consent to the Association assembling on this side of the line '45°, and it was strongly urged, certainly with more of truth than poetry in the argument, that the Natural History Society, a paralysed, helpless and almost hopeless institution, struggling hard for its very existence, to invite an Association so active and energetic, so distinguished and so full of vitality, would not only be a shock to modesty, but a proceeding which if favorably received, would place the Society in the most awkward difficulty of providing ways and means in accordance with its obligations, to accommodate, and entertain the Association so invited. The dissentients were hard to satisfy, but they were at length convinced. The quiet but telling and practical arguments of the President brought them over. There was no knowing what might be the results of such a meeting, what its good effects alike to the aged professor and the very tyro in science. To bring here so many of the learned in this continent to meet together in social communion, for the interchange of great thoughts, would re-animate the dry bones of our society and make it again live. The excitement would not pass at once away; the influences would not be transient, but abiding; they would be with us long; we trust they will never leave us; and that (to use the words of an eminent philosopher speaking of the great sister Society, the British Association,) whether the mathematician's study, or the astronomer's observatory, or the chemist's laboratory, or some rich distant meadow unexplored as yet by botanist, or some untrodden mountain top, or any of the other haunts and homes and oracular

places of science, be our allotted place of labour, till we meet together again, these influences will operate upon us all, and make us look foward with joyful expectation to our next re-assembling, and by the recollection and the hope, be stimulated and supported.

The delegation, having been named, and furnished with full powers by the society, and the city Corporation having appointed a committee to co-operate with us, and unite in the letter of invitation, proceeded to Albany to discharge its important trust. The author of this notice having had the honor of being appointed one of the delegates, can speak from personal experience of the hospitality with which they were received, and the marked kindness and attention they experienced at the hands of the local committee. Nor was he less struck by the enthusiasm elicited by the concourse of congenial minds, there assembled the friendships formed and cemented-the trains of experiment first suggested, or prosecuted anew after being long abandoned; above all, the awakening of the public mind to the just claims of science, as shewn by the large and crowded, and attentive audiences who frequented the rooms, and the anxiety of the press to obtain and publish detailed and lengthy reports of the proceedings Montreal was not without a rival for the honor she coveted. Baltimore, the monumental city, had even been before her in the field, and had sent a delegate to present her claims, (Professor Steiner) whose eloquence, not less powerful than was his gentlemanly deportment and manners winning and pleasing, we were afraid, would carry the day. The permanent committee declined making the decision, and referred it to the Association at large. In the course of the discussions in the different sections some of our Montreal savans highly distinguished themselves. Sir Wm. Logan, Principal Dawson, Professor Smallwood, and Mr. Hunt contributed many valuable papers, and took prominent parts in the scientific subjects discussed, and we have no doubt this aided much in influencing the decision. Our Baltimore opponent agreed that whoever had the majority of voices should move that the decision be declared unanimous; and Montreal happily proving the favourite, Professor Steiner in most complimentary terms moved as he had proposed. The motion was agreed to amidst loud applause, and we need not say how proudly exaltant was the delegation at its certainly unlooked for success.

The Local Committee held its first meeting in Montreal in

September last, and having appointed a Secretary, proceeded to add to its number some sixty of our chief citizens. These consist of some of the Judges of the land, and members of the Bar, Clergy, and members of the Medical Profession, Lieut. Col. Munro, C. B., of the 39th Regiment, some of the Editors of the Local papers, and our principal city merchants. Meetings of the Committee have been held monthly until now, the middle of July, when it has been decided to assemble weekly until the 12th of August, the day of the meeting. The general committee has been divided into five sub-committees: 1st Conveyance; 2nd. Invitation and Accomodation; 3rd. Places of meeting and access to Public Institutions, &c.; 4th Printing and Post Office; and 5th Finance. These Committees have all been hard at work making the necessary arrangements in the respective departments entrusted to them, and the diligence with which they have acted and the encouragement and assistance they have received from all quarters makes us believe that the meeting will be a most successful one, and that Montreal is fully alive to its importance.

The Government of Canada, following the example of the State authorities at Albany, have granted £500 to assist in the celebration; eleven free passages have been given by the owners of the ocean lines of steamboats; the different railroads and steamboats both here and in the United States have consented to carry the members of the Association to and from Montreal for one fare; and a subscription has been already set on foot by our citizens which promises to reach a large and liberal amount. The morning sessions of the Association, and its sectional meetings will be held in different rooms in the new Court House; the evening entertainments will be given in the Bonsecours Hall, these buildings having been placed at the disposal of the committee, gratuitously for this purpose. The meetings are all open to the public, free of charge. The Standing Committee will assemble in the Library of the Natural History Society, Little St. James Street. The Governor General, Sir Edmund Head, himself a scholar of no mean pretentions, has taken a great interest in the success of the meeting, and it is to be regretted that his absence in England, which will likely be prolonged until October, will prevent his being present personally, and taking a part in the proceedings. Invitations have been sent to eminent savans in Great Britain and on the European Continent, to the number, including Learned

Societies, of about 250. It is cause of much regret that the proportion of these, who have responded to the invitations and are likely to attend, is so small; but the length of the voyage, the time that it necessarily must occupy, and the very few free passages placed at the disposal of the Committee have all in some The fact of the Bridegree contributed to lessen the number.

tish Association holding its meeting during the same month, and the engagement, so many of the European celebrities have contracted in respect thereof, has also been a great drawback to the But we are proud to say attendance of the foreigners invited. that among those whom we have good reason to expect will be present on the occasion, are Sir R. J. Murchison, Director general of the Geological Survey of Great Britain; Col. W. J. Hamilton, M. P., ex-president of the Geological Society of London; Dr. Seaman, delegate from the Linnean Society of London; and Sir Wm. Hooker, of the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Before concluding this brief notice of an Association which we are now so actively preparing to receive, it may be well to reply to a question which some will be sure to ask, viz: how this Association differs from its fellows, and what peculiar means it has of awakening and directing to scientific purposes the power of the social spirit; or why, when there were so many old and new societies for the advancement of science, it was thought necessary and expedient to call this society into being. To say that in this respect it has but followed the example set it by the older and more celebrated institution in our father land, would, to all who understand the benefits and advantages accruing to science and the world at large from the labor of the members of that distinguished association, be explanation enough, especially when added to the fact that we live in a comparatively new country, and that in scientific investigation and research we are but beginners. But it is well to condescend a little more, and in doing so, in preference to any language of our own, we condense and apply that made use of by Sir Wm. Hamilton when answering similar queries made elsewhere.

The American Association, then, as an Association, differs in its magnitude and universality from all lesser and more local societies. What they do upon a small scale, it does upon a large; what others do for Montreal, Toronto, or New York, this does for the whole American continent. Its gigantic arms stretch even to Europe and India; and the joy with which it welcomes to its