Che Victorian naturalist. 



Vol. XXXV.— No. 2. JUNE 6, 1918. No. 414. 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The ordinary monthly meeting of the Club was held at the 

 Royal Society's Hall on Monday evening, 13th May, 1918. 



The president, Mr. F. Pitcher, occupied the chair, and about 

 sixty members- and visitors were present. 



The president introduced to the meeting Miss D. Philpott, 

 a member who had volunteered to take shorthand notes of 

 the proceedings by means of the stenotype machine. 



A report of the excursion to Altona Bay on Saturday, 13th 

 April, was given by the leader, Mr. E. S. Anthony, who stated 

 that there had been a good attendance of members. A visit 

 was first made to the aboriginal shell-mounds, usually known 

 as kitchen middens, situated near the shore-line to the east 

 of the station. An examination of these revealed quantities 

 of broken shells of mollusca of kinds still common in the 

 locality. Several of the mounds showed signs of fire having 

 been used in preparing the feasts, and some fragments of the 

 bones of birds were also noted. Some pieces of ochre used by 

 the aboriginals for decorative purposes were also obtained. 

 Returning to the western side of the jetty and traversing the 

 hollows between the sand-dunes, search was made for further 

 signs of the former inhabitants of the place. Here members 

 were rewarded by finding numbers of quartzite flakes of various 

 shapes and sizes, also some of the cores from which the flakes 

 had been struck. These flakes were the primitive instruments 

 which the aboriginals used for cutting, preparing animal skins, 

 &c. The botany of the district is not remarkable, but a 

 number of introduced plants seem to thrive there, about which 

 Mr. H. B. Williamson would say a few words. Mr. Williamson 

 remarked that the most interesting of the endemic plants were 

 the useful sand- binding grasses, Spinifex hirsutus, Hairy 

 Spinifex, and Cynodon dactylon, Couch-Grass. The Rosy 

 Stork' s-bill, Pelargonium Rodney anum, was blooming in many 

 places. The principal introduced plants were Solarium 

 Sodomceum, Apple of Sodom, Glaucium luteum, Horned Poppy, 

 Atriplex patula, Common Arache, and Silene cucubatus, Bladder 

 Campion ; the latter, though a troublesome weed in some 

 places, was showing a mass of thick roots, holding the sandy 

 soil together and preventing erosion. 



A report of the excursion to Wattle Park, Riversdale, on 

 Saturday, 27th April, was given by the leader, Mr. F. G. A. 

 Barnard, who said that the excursion had been well attended. 

 The afternoon proved very enjoyable, though the park is not 



