NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 297 



and may be obtained there at a reasonable cost, for study or 

 illustration. Even large specimens of Rhizostoma are perfectly 

 and permanently preserved by this process. Baron Maclay also 

 gave an account of various large animal preparations which had 

 been preserved in the Berlin Museum by the Wickersheimer 

 fluid, pointing out that the failures which had attended its use here, 

 -were due to too protracted immersion in the fluid. The objects, 

 when once well penetrated by the solution, should be withdrawn 

 and kept in a dry state. 



Mr, Whitelegge exhibited a decayed leaf of some aquatic plant 

 covered with a thick growth of Plumatella repens. Also a 

 specimen of fresh water sponge, undetermined. Both from a 

 waterhole in Moore Park. 



Mr. Trebeck showed the claw of a very large crab, Pseudo- 

 carcinus gigas, which had been washed ashore in Lane Cove. This 

 species is of common occurrence in Bass' Straits, but is seldom 

 found much to the northward of that district. 



Professor Stephens exhibited for the Rev. J. M. Curran, some 

 good specimens of Sphenopteris, Alethopteris and Merianopteris, as 

 described by the Rev. J. E. Tenison- Woods in his paper, vol. viii., 

 pt. 1. Also of Thinfeldia odontopteroides, and a photograph of the 

 male amentum of Walchia Milneana, all from Ballinore near 

 Dubbo. Also a quantity of Coccus infesting a species of Casuarina 

 from near Warren. 



Professor Stephens exhibited, for Mr. J. Anderson, of 

 Newstead, near Inverell, several specimens of Leaves and fresh- 

 water Molluscs (Unio). They were clearly tertiary, were, though 

 much fractured by the pick, excellently preserved, and probably 

 all capable of identification. The matrix was hardened mud, the 

 detritus of basaltic rock mixed with much vegetable debris, and 

 clotted with numerous little spheres of pisolitic iron ore. The 

 pool in which this mud was deposited must have been of very 

 still water, and may probably have been formed by a lava stream 

 damming some small rivulet. 



