540 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



generall}^ between tide-marks, but also in New Zealand and New 

 Caledonia. In localities where Lithodomus occurs it is found 

 occupying the disused holes of the latter; but in situations free 

 from coral, the spider may be sought for under stones, in fissures, 

 or in tunnels bored by such molluscs as Venerupis and Pholas, or, 

 in fact, any natural cavity. The water is kept out of their 

 dwellings by a curtain of thickly matted web. The abdomen of 

 Desis is thickly coated with downy hairs, which entangling a 

 quantity of air, and detaining it round the body during its 

 immersion, gives to the spider when diving the appearance of a 

 body covered with globules of quicksilver. Should the air within 

 its chamber become exhausted, the spider returns to the surface 

 and procures a fresh supply. 



The President exhibited a double-flowered spathe of the common 

 Arum lily, Richardia africana, Kth.; and a specimen of Eucalyptus 

 tereticornis^ Sm., from the Astrolable Range, New Guinea. Also, 

 on behalf of Mr. E. Betche, who collected it, a spirit specimen of 

 Balanophora fungosa^ Forst., a root-parasite in dense, moist, coast 

 forest, near Cairns, N. Queensland (August, 1901). It is, 

 as far as known, the only representative in Australia of the inter- 

 esting Order of Balanophorce, root-parasites of a more or less 

 fungus-like habit, but belonging to the Dicotyledons, and allied to 

 the Olacinece and Aristolochiacece. 



Mr. Fletcher exhibited copies of the two published books, and 

 some interesting relics, of John William Lewin, " naturalist and 

 painter," who settled in New South Wales in 1798; and whose 

 remains until recently reposed in what was the Devonshire Street 

 Cemetery. The exhibit included a few of Le win's undoubtedly very 

 numerous unpublished drawings; also early impressions of some 

 of his published illustrations of birds and insects which were 

 engraved, printed and coloured in the Colony ; accompanying 

 them are his MS. observations on the animals which served as the 

 basis of the text which was printed in England : these are now 

 in the possession of the Society. A sketch of Lewin's career as 

 colonist, artist, zoological collector and field naturalist was given. 



