CDe Uictoriait naturalist. 



Vol. XXY.— No. 6. OCTOBER 8, 1908. No. 298. 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The ordinary monthly meeting of the Club was held at the Royal 

 Society's Hall on Monday evening, 14th September, 1908. 



The president, Mr. G. A. Keartland, occupied the chair, and 

 about 80 members and visitors were present. 



REPORTS. 



A report of the Club excursion to South Morang on Saturday, 

 22nd August, was given by the leaders, Messrs. G. A. Keartland 

 and A. D. Hardy, F.L.S. The former said that a fair variety of 

 small birds, such as shrike-tits, cuckoos, tree-creepers, and honey- 

 eaters, had been observed in the timber' along the banks of the 

 Plenty River, but the squally weather of the afternoon had been 

 against good work being done. Mr. A. D. Hardy said that 

 beyond seeing some good specimens of the Silver Wattle, Acacia 

 dealhata, in full bloom, which was mainly the object of the excur- 

 sion, little of botanical interest was noted during the afternoon. 

 Owing to recent rains the stream was too high to be crossed, and 

 attention could therefore only be given to one bank. Later in 

 the season the locality would prove more interesting, owing to the 

 variety of shrubs which would then be in bloom. Advantage 

 was taken of the presence of young fruits on the Native Cherry, 

 Exocarpos cupress{/o7'mis, to demonstrate their mode of growth, 

 and to point out that the part popularly regarded as the fruit is 

 really the fleshy fruit-stalk. He mentioned that a short demonstra- 

 tion on the geological features had been given by Dr. T. S. 

 Hall, M.A. The party, which numbered about twenty-two, 

 returned to Armstrong's Hotel for tea, and spent a pleasant hour 

 or so before the train left for town, 



A report of the Club excursion to Sandringham on Saturday, 

 1 2th September, was given by Mr. C. A. Topp, M.A., who said 

 he was very pleased to be able to join in the Club excursions 

 once more. Since he last collected over the Sandringham 

 country the spread of building operations had greatly curtailed 

 the collecting ground, and he was much indebted to Mr. C. 

 French, jun., for guidance as to the direction for the excursion. 

 Some forty species of plants were noted in bloom during the 

 afternoon. Under the tea-tree the orchids Pterostylis nutans^ 

 P. nana, P. pedunculata, and P. concinna were fairly common, 

 though the ground seemed unusually dry. In an opening in the 

 scrub a number of the little Adder's-tongue Fern, Ophioglossum 

 vulgatum, were pointed out. On turning inland, near the 

 Blackrock estate, the more showy orchids Caladenia deformis 

 and C. carnea were noted. Here also the acacias A. longijolia, 



