Mar ( ;'1 Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. 155 



the Club : and Dr. W. Elliot Drake, " Woonda Mia," Upper 

 Beaconsfield, and Mr. Anton Vroland, State school, Elmore, 

 as country members. 



GENERAL BUSINESS. 



Mr. G. Coghill expressed the opinion that the Club should 

 abandon the present system of election by ballot for the 

 inclusion of new members, and elect on a show of hands. The 

 system of election by ballot was cumbersome, and occupied 

 far too much time. 



On the motion of Mr. Coghill, seconded by Mr. A. D. Hardy, 

 the matter was referred to the committee for consideration. 



REMARKS BY EXHIBITORS. 



Mr. F. Pitcher drew attention to a flowering spray of Twisted 

 Acacia, or Lightwood, Acacia implexa, from an aged tree near 

 the Park-street gate of the Botanic Gardens. The tree, which 

 was at present an object of interest to the visitors to the Gardens, 

 had never bloomed so freely as at present. It was simply one 

 mass of trusses of pale lemon flowers, and since the recent rains 

 more foliage and blooms had been put forth. 



Mr. P. R. H. St. John said he was exhibiting, on behalf of 

 the Curator of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, samples of crude 

 oil derived from cultivated plants in the Gardens. The crude 

 oil of Eucalyptus occidentalis was distilled on 2/2/16, and that 

 from Calythrix Sullivani on 7/2/16. The sample of oil labelled 

 Eucalyptus coriacea, var. alpina, was obtained from material 

 collected by Dr. W. H. Green in the Bright district in December, 

 1915, and distilled on 3/2/16. In every instance the samples 

 shown constituted a first record of the extraction of oil from 

 the species mentioned. The exhibit by Miss A. Fuller of a 

 variegated form of Eucalyptus coriacea was, he said, unique. 

 Heretofore he had only known this peculiarity to have evidenced 

 itself in Eucalyptus viminalis and Eucalyptus amygdalina. 



Mr. J. Stickland directed attention to his exhibit, under the 

 microscope, of the rotifer Limnias ceratophylli, which now occurs 

 in extraordinary abundance in the Botanic Gardens lakes. 

 The fan-shaped cluster shown contained forty individuals 

 attached to one original tube. 



Mr. C. Daley said that among the geological specimens he 

 exhibited were samples, in the rough and polished state, of 

 marble from Buchan and Toongabbie, Gippsland, and Angaston, 

 South Australia. The Angaston marble is being used in the 

 erection ot the Commonwealth offices in the Strand, London. 

 I he rough and polished specimens of serpentine were from 

 Mount Wellington, Gippsland, and (he corundum and slate. 

 showing graptolites, were from 1 he same locality. 



