30 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



" The Club has to regret the loss, by death, during th. past 

 year of one honorary member, Dr. J. E. Taylor, and of i 

 ordinary members, who have been for many years associated v\ 

 the Club — Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson, Dr. P. MacGillivray, ai. 

 J. L. Bowen. 



" Twenty-three papers have been read at the meetings, and in 

 addition n others written by members of the Club have appeared 

 in the Naturalist, of which 8 were botanical, 16 zoological, 2 

 geological, 3 dealt with excursions, and 5 with general subjects. 



" The names of those who have contributed papers to the 

 meetings and to the Naturalist are Baron von Mueller, H. P. C. 

 Ashworth, F. L. Billinghurst, H. Bullen, Rev. W. Fielder, R. J. 

 Fletcher, C. French, C. French jun., J. Gabriel, R. Hall, T. S. 

 Hall, T. S. Hart, W. H. F. Hill, Oswald B. Lower, G. Lyell, D. 

 M'Alpine, Mrs. Martin, A. J. North, C. M. Maplestone, O. A. 

 Sayce, D. Le Souef, Professor Spencer, and H. T. Tisdall. 



" The number of papers is considerably larger than that of last 

 year, but your Committee trusts that the coming year will see 

 still further activity in this direction. In particular it would point 

 out to country members and to those who have the opportunity 

 of investigating the fauna and flora of special districts the im- 

 portance of drawing up local lists dealing with the fauna and 

 flora of special parts of the colony. This work can advantageously 

 be carried on side by side with an investigation into the habits 

 and life-histories of the animals recorded, and such carefully 

 drawn up faunal lists are of considerable importance in dealing 

 with general questions concerned with the distribution of animals 

 and plants. In this respect it is to be hoped that the Club will 

 be able to publish series of papers from various members, such as 

 those now being written by Mr. Billinghurst on the fauna of the 

 Castlemaine district. 



" The excursions have been fairly well attended, but there is 

 room for considerable improvement in this respect, and the atten- 

 tion of members is once more drawn to the advantages to be 

 gained from taking part in field work in company with other 

 members of the Club with whom they have interests in common. 

 No extended excursion has been held during the year, but the 

 Club has received accounts of excursions made to Albatross 

 Island by Messrs. Gabriel and Ashworth, and to Mallacoota Inlet 

 by Mr. D. Le Souef. 



" During the year seven meetings have been held for practical 

 work, three of which were devoted to a course of demonstrations 

 given by Mr. C. A. Topp on systematic botany ; two were pre- 

 sided over by Mr. O. A. Sayce, who dealt practically with "Killing, 

 Mixing, and Staining Reagents for Microscopic Work ; " one by 

 Rev. W. Fielder, who dealt with the Tunicata ; and one by Mr. 

 Shephard, on the measurement of microscopic objects. Reference 



