XX. NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



1 Map, received from 88 Societii s, etc., and 3 private donors 

 were laid upon the table. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



A large specimen of the fossil Ulodendron was exhibited by 

 Professor David. This interesting genus had been discovered, 

 for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, last January, by 

 Mr. A. Pain, Demonstrator in the Geology Department of the 

 University, when, in company with Mr. W. R. Browne, B.Sc, 

 of the same Department, and the exhibitor, a systematic search 

 was being made for plant-fossils at the scene of the discovery, 

 Welshman's Creek, near Wallarobba, between West Maitland 

 and Dungog. Attention had first been directed to the locality 

 through Mr. W\ J. Enright, B.A., of West Maitland, who (m 

 enquiring whether any specimens of Lepidodendron had been 

 found in the neighbourhood, obtained, through the kindness of 

 Miss 0'J>rien, Mistress of the Wallarobba Public School, and her 

 pupil. Miss Nellie Schafer, an exquisitely preserved specimen of 

 Lepidodendron with the minutest cell-structure preserved, re- 

 placed in chalcedonic silica. This was found at Welshman's 

 Creek. Further search at this locality, in company with Pro- 

 fessor Lawson, and Mr. C. A. Siissmilch, led to the discovery of 

 several large stems of a tree allied to Pitys antiqua, hitherto 

 unrecorded from Australasia. Still later, the Ulodendron was 

 unearthed by Mr. Pain. The stem is at least, 18 inches in width, 

 and the scars marking the spots from which the cones, or sessile 

 strobili, have fallen off, are in two straight rows on opposite 

 sides of the tree. The scars are between 3 and 4 inches in 

 diameter, about 15 inches apart, and are alternate. The genus 

 Ulodendron is well known in the Carboniferous rocks of the 

 Northern Hemisphere, being specially characteristic of the 

 Lower Carboniferous horizon. The locality at Wallarobba is 

 evidently the site of an old fossil forest, the oldest as yet found 

 in Australasia. Professor Lawson will later contribute a de- 

 tailed description of the Ulodendron. 



Mr. Fletcher, on behalf of Mr. Musson and himself, exhibited 

 a series of lantern-illustrations of the modification of the natural 

 growth-habit of certain plants, due to parasitic organisms. 



