XV. 



there. Ross then went South, and showed others the way 

 they ^^ould liavc to take if they wanted to go down to the 

 Soutli Pole. They praised him as having been first to the 

 South Pole; well/ tliey did not know yet. (Laughter^ He 

 thought they had better wait a while, and hear what Captain 

 Scott had to say. (Laughter and applause.) It might be an- 

 other story then. Captain Scott might have been at the 

 Pole before they got there, without them seeing his marks. 

 He wished the .Nlawson expedition every success. It had com- 

 n.encod in a way which promised the best results, and he hoi>- 

 (xl that when Captain Davis returned to the Antarctic he would 

 c()nv<'y his best wishes to the members of the party. He join- 

 ed with the Admiral in thanking Mr. lieattie for one of the )nost 

 interesting lectures he had heard, and some of the most in- 

 teiesting pictures he had ever seen. (Applause.) 



APRIL 15; 1912. 



The ordinaiy monthly' meeting of the lioyal Society was 

 held at the Museum. Hon. G. H. Butler jiresided, 

 and there was a moderate attendance. 



The Chairman expressed regret at the absence of the presi- 

 dent of the Society, the Governor, but stated that His Excel- 

 lency hoiJed to be well enough to attend the next meeting. 



Messrs. C. W. Hemery and A. AMiite were elected as or- 

 dinary memljers of the Society. 



Professor Flynn lead a paper by Mr. W. G. Torr, LL.D., 

 on a new chiton. 



Mr. L. Hodway tabknl a pai>er u}X)n "Tasmanian Mosses," 

 stating that it \yas tlu; first of a series he was offering to thn 

 l^oyal Society with the idea of bringing out a thoroughly up- 

 to-dat<» de.scription of these interesting forms of our local 

 fiora. It might be considered that this was unnecessary, as so 

 n.uch had Ix^en done by previous workers in this line, but the 

 work had been -done in a very fragmentary manner. 

 There had be<:'n many excellent collectors and a great many 

 si)e<'ies had been i(l(^ntified, but there was no work in which 

 the whoU' of tlie information was consolidated. The student 

 of tlu' mosses of Tasmania had no work that he could go to 

 to gain all the information ho required, and the present was 

 a very good time to consolidate the whole of the information 

 available and bring it out in a suitable form. As far as was 

 known there w<'i(' about 3o0 species of mosses, and 250 si)ecies 

 of the closely allied forms, the hepatics, in Tasmania. Mr. W. 

 -V. Weymouth, who was one of the most active collectors of 

 inosses in the State, was unable to take up the work of revision 

 nimself, but he had placed the whole of his collection at his 

 (the speaker's) disposal, and it meant five years' work before 

 his task would be accomplished, and during that time he would 

 l>lace a series of articles before members which would enable 

 anyone taking up woik of this kind to start from practicallv 

 the present date. A large number of mosses had been describ- 



