" Will you kindly distribute his cards and circulars among those most 

 interested in the new pursuit ? 



" Believe me to remain, 



" Faithfully yours, 

 "Alex. Wallace, M.D." 

 Mr. Justin Browne said that, ha\'ing read various papers that had 

 been published on tlie propa<,'ation of the silk-worm with a view to 

 the production of silk, he was able to state that the early numbers of 

 the papers issued l)y the .Silk Sui)ply Association were now on the 

 table of the Hobart Town Chamber of Commerce, where they could be 

 examined by any person interested in the subject. The association 

 was established by gentlemen in London largely interested in the 

 silk trade, as well as by wealthy men who had retired from business. 

 The enormous importations of silk-worms egg from Japan had sup- 

 plied the Italian and French gr-owers with grubs, but for which the 

 culture of silk in France and Italy would have utterly failed, notwith- 

 standing the researches of M. Pasteur, who had applied himself to the 

 study of the cause of disease in the silkworm, and had perhaps found a 

 remedy. A letter had lately appeared in the London Times directing 

 attention to the restrictions placed uj)on the transmission of silkworms 

 eggs through the i>ost, and pointing out the injury that the silk culture 

 of Eurojje would sustain if these restrictions were maintained, the 

 Post Office having hitherto afforded a rapid and safe mode of conveyance 

 from the East to Eurojje. A series of articles, %vritten by Mr Cobb in. 

 Morijan^s Trade Circular of July and August last, were especially 

 worthy of notice. The writer quoting his experience in Italy stated that 

 when the worms no longer needed mulberry leaves for food, the re- 

 maining produce of the trees was gathered and used for sheep and 

 cattle food, the flavour of meat produced from mulberry leaf fed sheep 

 being sujjerior to that fed in the ordinary manner. The fruit, with 

 some rice, fonned almost the only food of the inhabitants while it was 

 in season, and the tree grew successfully in hedge rows. The speaker 

 went on to say that the late Mr. Stutzer had shown much more 

 foresight than had been attributed to him, in advocating the growth 

 of the mulberry tree, and the jjropagation of the silkworm, and had he 

 remained in Tasmania, and lived to superintend the plantation made 

 by him at the Orphan School, there would now, probably, have been 

 some small export of silk or cocoons (for the latter are now preferred 

 by English manufacturers) from this colony, as the product of a 

 branch of industry carried on by inmates of that institution. The in- 

 dividual parcels of silk hitherto produced here were rather the re- 

 sult of amusement than of any attemjjt to open a new branch of trade. 



The Secretary read a letter from Dr. Story, Swansea, on the desi- 

 rability of introducing the cork oak, and the medicinal squill into the 

 colony, for both of which he thought the climate very suitable. 



Mr. Abbott remarked that a cork oak (Quercus suher), about 14 ft. 

 high, now in the Society's Gardens, flowered for the first time this year. 

 From this a small supply of acorns will be obtainable by any one willing 

 to plant them ; but a large supply of the oak has been raised in Mel- 

 bourne Botanic Gardens by Baron Von Mueller, from whom lust 

 year the Government received some young trees, which are now grow- 

 ing on Tasman's Peninsula. In addition to these, a few remain at the 

 Society's Gardens for distribution. There is little doubt that Baron 

 Von Mueller would furnish plants to any one who would bestow a suffi- 

 cient amount of care on this valuable tree, as he thinks it will flourish 

 in Tasmania. 



[The medicinal squill ( Urginea scilla) well thrives in the Gardens. Six 



