Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. IGl 



exercised, in obtaining the specimens from the abrupt crest 

 in which the Owen Stanley Range terminated. As that 

 Range rose to the height of 13,000 feet, there was at its 

 summit a thousand feet of Alpine country. Still higher 

 mountains covered perpetually with snow, had come into 

 view. There was in New Guinea what was called a 

 highland vegetation — Sir Wm. MacGregor termed it a 

 Sub-Alpine vegetation. It was at the commencement of a 

 new line of research, which he hoped Australia would carry 

 out. A series of years would have to be occupied before 

 the whole of the ranges, which were Alpine, could be 

 exhaustively explored. This was owing partly to the 

 difficulty of approaching them in their present state. The 

 presence of the natives and the extraordinary abruptness of 

 the ranges were the difficulties. It would require a man of 

 great energy and strength to overcome those difficulties, and 

 His Excellency the Governor of British New Guinea had 

 done good work in that direction. A number of the plants 

 obtained were to be found not only in the Snowy Mountains 

 in Victoria, but down to the Auckland Islands. The same 

 held good in regard to the Himalayas. There was therefore 

 an intermixture of the forms peculiar to the Himalaj^as 

 and the far South. Sir William MacGregor had discovered 

 that some of the plants found on a mountain in North 

 Borneo, also 13,000 feet high, were to be found also in 

 New Guinea. 



A discussion ensued, in which the President, Mr. Stirling, 

 Dr. Wigg, Mr. G. S. Griffiths, and Baron von Mueller took 

 part. 



Thursday, October 'lOth. 

 The President (Professor Kernot) in the chair. 

 The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



Miss H. H. Neild signed the book, and was introduced to 

 the Meeting. 



Dr. Neild said : — Mr. President and Gentlemen, I thank 

 you for having elected my daughter as an Associate of this 

 Society. She is the first lady Member, and her election 

 marks an era in the existence of the Society, which has now 

 l)een established for thirty-six years. I have heard some 

 expressions of misgiving as to the propriety or expediency of 



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