190 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



vastatrix, Sk., showing how easily this destructive insect might 

 be conveyed from one part of the country to another through the 

 medium of hay. 



Mr. Burnell exhibited specimens of Ceylon fire-flies. 



Mr. Deane called attention to a means of distinguishing species 

 of plants by qualities and products which are generally over- 

 looked by botanists, but which are of the utmost practical value. 

 Plants only slightly differing outwardly are put down as mere 

 varieties of the same species. Inquiry, however, perhaps shows 

 that their products, such as timber, are quite different in 

 character, in which case, therefore, they ought to be recognised as 

 quite distinct in species. Mr. Deane exliibited timber specimens 

 of three so-called varieties of Eucalyptus saligna, the Sydney 

 blue gum, two of E. hceniastoma, and two of E. goniocalyx, to 

 illustrate his remarks. 



Mr. Macleay exhibited two new species of Snakes which he had 

 received from J. A. Boyd, Esq., of Ripple Creek, Herbert District, 

 Queensland. One was evidently a species of Fordonia, a genus of 

 freshwater snakes of the family Homalopsidse ; the other was a sea- 

 snake, resembling somewhat the Hydrophidse, but probably be- 

 longing to the genus Chersydrus, one of the Wart Snakes or 

 Acrochordidse. 



Mr. Trebeck made the following communication : — 



" The Committee of the Field Naturalists' Section of the Royal 

 Society of South Australia have applied for the co-operation of 

 our Society in their endeavours to establish the better protection 

 of the native fauna and flora. This opens up a most difficult 

 question, as many of the animals and birds proposed to be protected 

 are included in the list of noxious animals under the ' Pastures 

 and Stock Protection Act ' now in force in this colony, and it is to 

 the interest of pastoralists to keep the numbers down, if not to 

 exterminate them. 



