THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Victoria. A number of eggs were found under a stone, several 

 of which hatched out in confinement. 



By Mr. A. Mattingley. — Specimen of Echinoderm, Gonio- 

 cidaris tubaria, from Western Port, Vic. 



By Mr. B. Nicholls. — Snow-berries, Gaultiera hispida, from 

 Matlock, Vic. 



By Mr. F. P. Spry. — Butterflies, Lucia lucanus and Hesperilla 

 donnysa, from Altona Bay, Vic, collected 2,IaI°A j ^Iso flaked 

 flints from various aboriginal camps in Victoria. 



By Mr. H. T. Tisdall. — Specimens of fungus known as 

 " Native Bread," Mylitta australis, in illustration of his note. 



By Mr. H. B. Williamson. — Dried specimens from Hawkes- 

 dale, collected 12th March, 1904, and new for S.W. Victoria: 

 Isoetes drummondi, A. Braun, and Heliocharis acicularis, 

 R. Br. 



By Mr. F. Wisewould. —Eggs of a species of Victorian Sting 

 Ray. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



PRESENTATION OF THE MUELLER MEDAL. 



A JOINT meeting of the Royal Society and the Field Naturalists' 

 Club was held in the Royal Society's Hall on Thursday evening, 

 2ist April, 1904, on the occasion of the presentation of the 

 Mueller medal to Mr. A. W. Howitt, F.G.S. 



The platform was occupied by Professor Baldwin Spencer, 

 F.R.S., president of the Royal Society, and Mr. O. A. Sayce, 

 president of the Field Naturalists' Club, and there was a good 

 attendance of members of both societies. 



Professor Spencer gave a short history of the foundation of the 

 Mueller medal, which is the outcome of a fund raised by the 

 scientific friends of the late Baron von Mueller, Government 

 Botanist of Victoria, in order to, in some tangible way, perpetuate 

 his name. It had been decided that the Australasian Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, as the most representative 

 scientific body in Australia, should take over the fund, and 

 should, not oftener than once in two years, award a medal for 

 distinguished work in natural science, having special reference to 

 Australasia. The first award of the medal was made at the 

 Dunedin meeting of the Association in January last, when the 

 choice unanimously fell upon Mr. A. W. Howitt, whose name as 

 a scientific worker in Victoria, in botany, geology, and ethnology, 

 has been familiar to Australian scientists for nearly fifty years, 

 and he said that he had been deputed to make the presentation 

 on behalf of the Association. 



Prof. Spencer then gave some account of Mr. Howitt's work in 

 the several branches of science he had followed, and announced 



