Jg"'] Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedingsi 147 



EXHIBITS. 



By Mr. C. C. Brittlebank.—" Plane-tree Leaf Scorch/' 

 Glocosporum nemecqimm? (Fckl), Sacc, causing damage to the 

 Plane-trees in several inland towns in Victoria. 



By Mr. C. J. Gabriel. — Marine shells, Pinna tasmanica, Ten.- 

 Wds., from Port Phillip, and Vulsella lingtilata, Lam., from 

 Port Albert and Western Port. 



By Mr. F. Pitcher. — Flowering branches of Erythrinas — E. 

 Blakei, Blake's Coral Bush, a hybrid, and E. Crista-galli, L., 

 variety compada. Compact Coral Tree, a native of Brazil, now 

 flowering in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens ; also, specimens 

 of Mimosa pudica, L., Common Sensitive Plant, native to 

 Brazil; Drosera binata, '* Forked Sundew"; and Anastatica 

 Hierochuntina, "Rose of Jericho," a native of Asia Minor and 

 N. Africa. This annual plant retains the property of expanding 

 when moistened and again curling up w^hen dry. When the 

 seed ripens the leaves wither and droop, the whole plant 

 becomes dry, each branch curls inwards, until the plant presents 

 the appearance of a ball of wickerwork at the top of the 

 unbranched stem. In this state it is soon loosened from the 

 soil and carried about by the wind. When moistened the 

 branches unbend, and the pods begin to open by spHtting 

 longitudinally, and so, if lodged in favourable locahties, produces 

 fresh individuals. 



By Miss RoUo. — Pebbles from Brighton Beach, England, also 

 near Hamilton, and near Essendon, Victoria. 



By Mr. J. Searle. — Specimens of Boeckella asymmetrica, J. 

 Searle, n. sp., under the microscope, in illustration of his paper. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



About Members. — Miss Freda Bage, M.Sc, who has been 

 engaged in science work in Brisbane for some time, has been 

 appointed Principal of the Women's College to be opened shortly 

 at the Queensland University. 



Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley, C.M.Z.S., has been elected president 

 of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union for 1913-14. 



"The Austral Avian Record." — The October part (vol. ii., 

 Nos. 2 and 3) of this publication to hand contains several 

 articles of interest. Reference is made to Billberg's classification 

 of birds, pubhshed in 1828, and his list of the birds of Scandi- 

 navia. These afford opportunity for discussing the priority of 

 several generic names now in use. The editor, Mr, Gregory 

 Mathews, has an article on " New Generic Names," with notes 

 on some others, in which many Australian birds are re-christened, 

 while nine pages are devoted to "Additions and Corrections to 

 the Editor's Reference-list," of which by this time little of the 

 original can remain. 



