175 



NOTES AND EXIIIHITS. 



Mr. Froc^c^att exhibited specimens of Oligotoina giirneyi, 

 Froggatt (Fam. Embiida), together with one of tlie webs which 

 they fabricate, received from Mr. Thomas Steel; the species was 

 described in last year's Proceedings from the study of a single 

 individual taken at light; since that time the insects had been 

 found in great numbers in the Colonial Sugar Company's Refinery 

 at Pyrmont, the presence of the webs giving the walls the appear- 

 ance of being coated with mould. Also pupte of one of the 

 common Sydney bulldog ants {Myrmecia pyriformis, Sm.), cut 

 out of the pupal cocoons; and exhibited to show the curious 

 spiny structures present on the body, but which are absent in 

 the imago. 



Dr. Greig Smith exhibited samples of gum, and cultures in 

 illustration of his papers. 



Mr. Alex. G. Hamilton sent for exhibition a very regular con- 

 cretion (calcareous) presenting considerable resemblance to an 

 obsidianite, from the Moore River, N. W. Australia. 



Mr. Steel read the following Note on Zea mays, Linn. : — "At 

 a meeting of the Society last year, Mr. Fred. Turner exhibited 

 specimens of abnormal cobs of this plant, in which the sheaths 

 were not developed, the cobs being situated in the midst of the 

 male inflorescence. '^ It seemed to me that it would be of interest 

 to endeavour to grow plants from these cobs, and, through the 

 courtesy of Mr. Turner, I was able to do so. A number of the 

 seeds which I planted in my garden germinated and grew into 

 healthy plants 6 or 7 feet in height which were in all respects 

 normal, the relative positions of the male and female inflorescences 

 being as usual. The cobs were, like the parent ones, somewhat 

 small in size, the seed-heads being about 6 inclies in length." 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxix. p. 129. 



