■'^J^"''''l Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. 175 



Mr. J. Gabriel drew attention to the fasciation evidenced in 

 his exhibit of a branch of Tecoma McKenii. The plant 

 from which the si)ecimen was taken was growing in his garden 

 at Kew, and bore other examples of this abnormal feature. 

 Fasciation is a common malformation in jilants, especially in 

 stems, which become enlarged and flattened. It produces the 

 crest-like condition exhibited in the cultivated cockscomb, 

 which is an instance of hereditary fasciation, and is said to be 

 ordinarily caused by gall mites. 



Mr. F. Pitcher drew attention to his exhibit of blooms of 

 Acacia discolor, Willd., Sunshine Wattle, and Acacia linearis, 

 Sims, Narrow-leaved Acacia, now flowering in the Botanic 

 (iarden, and also to the fruiting branches of the Victorian 

 Mutton wood, Myrsinc variabilis, R. Brown, and to a photo- 

 graph depicting the February flowering of the Japanese 

 Magnolia, Magnolia conspicua, var. Soulangeri. 



Mr. J. Searle drew attention to several species of thrips 

 exhibited on behalf of Mr. R. Kelly. Thrips are extremely 

 small insects, which can do an immense amount of damage to 

 plant life, and this season have been particularly destructive, 

 especially to orchard crops. Thrips are classed by themselves 

 in the order Thysanoptera, so named on account of their fringed 

 wings. Their feet are peculiar, on account of being bladder 

 shaped. One remarkable Australian genus forms galls on 

 acacia leaves, while another (Idolothrips) is quite a giant in the 

 group, being a quarter of an inch in length. 



He also called attention to a tube of pond water showing a 

 remarkable development of a species of Vorticella, one of the 

 Bell-animalcules. A colony of these attached to a twig had 

 been placed in a tube 4 inches x |-inch, three-parts filled with 

 watei", and in forty-eight hours had increased to such an extent 

 that the whole of the tube was lined with new colonies of 

 Vorticella. 



LECTURE. 



Mr, E. O. Thiele, D.Sc, then delivered an illustrated lecture on 

 " Geological. Exploration in Portuguese East Africa." 



The lecturer, who for many years was a member of the Club, 

 for the last seven years has been conducting geological explo- 

 ration in tropical Africa, under the direction of the Imperial 

 Institute, London. For two seasons he was associated with 

 Mr. A. E. Kitson in Southern Nigeria, who, it will be 

 remembered, gave an interesting account of his work before the 

 Club some eighteen months ago {Vict. Nat., vol. xxx., p. 37, 

 June, 1913). During the past four years he has had charge of 

 similar work in Portuguese East Africa, where he has had as an 

 assistant Mr. R. C. Wilson, also a Victorian. 



The lecture was illustrated by a splendid series of lantern 

 slides, those of the physical features being especially fine. 



