SOi irOTES AIs'D EXHIBITS. 



Mr. E. P. Kamsaj exhibited tlie fruit of a small species of 

 coeoanut fGocos), from the Island of Ugi, Solomon Group. He 

 stated that there are only two or three trees of this kind of 

 Coeoanut known in the island, and that these are held in special 

 respect by the natives, who have planted numerous varieties of 

 Crotons and Coleiis round the roots, and fenced each tree in with 

 blocks of coral. 



In the conversation which ensued, it was observed that a similar 

 species, if not the same, is common at Malacca, and that it is 

 also found, but not treated with any special regard, in other 

 Melanesian islands. It might therefore represent an ancient 

 and indigenous type of Cocos, gradually receding before the 

 larger species in ordinary cultivation, and so appearing only at 

 distant intervals. The reverence paid to the trees in Ugi, might 

 probably be a survival of an ancient worship of the wild or 

 indigenous tree, which had died out under the cultivation of the 

 larger and improved species. It would be more natural to pay 

 religious honour to a plant which owed nothing to human labour 

 than to one which the people had introduced and propagated of 

 themselves. 



Mr. Eamsay also exhibited specimens of the birds described 

 in his paper, viz., Dicrurus (Ohihia) longirostris, and a new Pigeon 

 FliJogcerias salamonis, both from the Solomon Islands, collected 

 by Mr. John Stephen, of ITgi. 



♦-♦ 



WEDNESDAY, 26tii JULY, 1882. 



The President J. C. Cox, M.D., E.L.S., &c., in the Chair. 



MEMBEES ELECTED. 



Edwin Daintrey, Esq., Sydney. 



Thomas R. M'Dougall, Esq., Baan Baa, Narrabri. 



Edwin Haviland, Esq., Redfern. 



Dr. Greorge Hurst, Oxford Street. 



