XIX. 



specios, though tlieio wen; ^^rcat diliVrciU'cs hotwcen tlioni. 

 "Specit's" were a <'()nvcni(Mit arbitrary grouping, and the only 

 qnostion was wluuc to draw tlu' line. J I t\\v plant was only 

 contin^'d to Tasmania tlioro would hv no difficulty in forming 

 four si>eci('s, but it occurred all over Australia. Tlie best thing 

 to do, therefor >, was to i>ut all the si>e<-imons into one group, 

 and leave it to Ik' split up in the future when someone had 

 .sotne botanieal energy to work off. 'J'here was a similar condi- 

 tion of true \'ariation going on in regard to th(! eucalj'pts, inde- 

 j.X'ndent of local conditions, and i nother condition of variation 

 would depen<l on local conditions. 'I'lie eucalypts of Australia 

 would n<'v<'r be ])rojXMly understood until they had been grown 

 from se<»d under varying (nniditions. When that was done, one- 

 quart<^r of the specific names now on the list woukl be sup- 

 pressed. 



AUGUST 12, 1912. 



Tlio usual montldy nuoting of the Royal Society was held 

 at the Mu.seum. Dr. G. 11. Butler occupied the chair, and there 

 was a good attendance of m(>nd)er-;. 



Messrs. L. H. Lindon, AF.A., and T. A. Tabart, jun., and 

 the Rev. A. Pollard were elected ordinary members of the So- 

 ciety. 



On the motion of Mr. L. Rodway, seconded by Mr. J. A. 

 Johnson, Pi-ofessor Flynn was api>ointed to represent the So- 

 ciety at the meeting of the Council of the Australasian Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science to be held in Melbourne in 

 .January next. 



Mr. T. Stephens read a short naner on some mineral 

 springs. 



In reply to a question, Mr. Stephens said that it was diffi- 

 cult to account for these springs, as there was no vertical height 

 from which a h<>ad of water could come. They seemed to him 

 to be boiling straight up from dovvn below. The disapi")ea ranee 

 of the mounds he could not account for at all. 



TASMANIAN T^IOSSES. 



Mr. L. Rodway road his second pai>er on the classification 

 of the Tasmanian moss flora, stating that during the last 30 

 years a great deal of w<nk had been done in regard to the 

 mosses by Mr. AV. A. Weymouth, rnd.a great many new species 

 had been made. It was due to Mr. Weymouth tliat he (the 

 speaker) liad undertidcen the work o1^ reclassification, as that 

 gentleman had no time for the work, and had handed the 

 whole of his collection o\ (>r to him for the purpose. To go 

 througli the whole of tbe mosses woidd take six or seven 

 papers of the length of the first one h.e had read. The society 

 had kindly undertaken tlie printing of the papers, but as they 

 were somewhat short of money, it was possible that the full 

 seiies of pa|>ers might extend over some years. 



