Otogo Institute. 6^7 



Sixth Meeting : 9^^ October.. 1906. 



The President, Dr. Marshall, in the chair. 



Exhibits. — 1. Dr. Hocken exhibited nuts collected by him at 

 Mangonui, North Auckland. 



These nuts had been washed down from the creek that runs into Mango- 

 nui Bay. From time to time there had been floods and landslips in the 

 locality, and one result was that the upper part of the bay into which the 

 creek debouched was filled with these floating nuts. He explored the 

 creek, and came across a bed of dense vegetable matter containing a few 

 of the nuts, varying in size. It was plain that they belonged to the palm- 

 tree order, which found its southern limit in New Zealand. 



Dr. Marshall said these palm-nuts had been referred to in the literature 

 of the colony as occurring at Mang^ nui, but he did not think any attempt 

 had been made to come to any conclusion as to the kind of tree that pro- 

 duced them. There were many evidences in New Zealand, so far as the 

 fossil vegetation was concerned, of a very considerable change of climate in 

 comparatively recent times. There was good evidence that the kauri- 

 tree in comparatively recent geologic times grew south of Dunedin. 



2. Mr. G. M. Thomson exhibited the fossil fruit of a plant. 

 probably allied to the Hakea of Australia — a genus not now 

 found in New Zealand — that had been found by Mr. John Emng. 

 of St. Bathan's, in the alluvial drift. 



Dr. Marshall pointed out that the Hat a had commenced to grow 

 on some dry clay lands around Auckland in a manner which threatened the 

 destruction of other vegetation. It was certainly strange that a plant 

 which once flourished and became extinct shovfld on its reintroduction 

 make such headway. 



3. Dr. Marshall showed a strip of material like chamois- 

 leather, which he had obtained from Dr. Cough trey, who had 

 several scjuare feet of it, all of uniform texture and thickness. 



This peculiar substance was the dense mycelium of some fungus that 

 had found its way down a split in a broadleaf tree. 



Addresi^es. — 1. " The Evolution of the Elephant," by Dr. 

 Benham. 



Dr. Benham described the characteristic featui'es of the elephant, 

 dwelling more especially upon the trunk, the teeth, and the square 

 shape of the skull, contrasting the latter with the .sloping skull of 

 the ordinary land mammal. In comparing the skull of a bulldog with 

 that of a greyhound, somewhat the same process was noted. There 

 were only two species of elephant found to-day — one in India and 

 one in Africa — but in past times elephants roamed all over the south of 

 Europe. The mammoth, a hairy elephant, roamed all over the north 

 of Europe and Siberia in enormous quantities, and its remains were still 

 found in the frozen soil. For centuries the Chinese had collected and 

 made use of mammoth tusks. The mammoth, which belonged to the 

 Pliocene, could be traced back to the Miocene period. At this earlier 

 l)eriod there was another ele])hant-like creature called the mastodon, 

 which possessed a trunk and large tusks, though its face was distinctly 

 more elongated than the face of the genus Elephas. Back beyond the 

 mastodon had been found remains of the tetrobelodon, an animal of the 



