126 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



and 2)lus premature birth or transfer to the pouch, weighed further 

 in support of the hypothesis that the Monotremes might be ova- 

 vivaparous in some such fashion. 



" However when I got the female Echidna with an ovum in each 

 uterus enlarged to the size shewn in my last paper, but with no 

 such advance of embryonal development as I had deemed possible 

 in the case of the smaller ova, I regarded the question as settled, 

 and was much gratified to learn that eggs had been found in the 

 nest by so skilled an observer as Caldwell. 



" I send with pleasure by the same post which takes this a copy of 

 Sceparnodon. I know of no extinct Australian form, of which a 

 skeleton, or any instructive part of the dental series, or of the 

 osteology, would be more acceptable than of your Sceparnodon. 



"You can commu.nicate any matter referred to in this letter to 

 our Associates in the Royal and Linnean Societies of Sydney. 

 " Believe me, with every good wish, 



" Sincerely yours, 



"Richard Owen." 



Mr. Pedley exhibited a Fungus occurring on the leaves of the 

 peach trees over the district extending from Prospect to Camden. 

 It is of the order Ascomycetes, and lodges exclusively on the 

 lower side of the leaf, the mycelium choking up the stomata, 

 and thus destroying the vitality of the plant. 



Mr. Edelfelt exhibited a bag formed of fibre obtained from a 

 species of Morus (?) by the natives of New Guinea near the 

 Owen Stanley Range, and described the mode of its preparation. 



