li 



OCTOBEH, 1899. 



The monthly evening meeting of the 

 society was held on Monday evening, 

 October 16th, the acting president, 

 His Excellency the Administrator (the 

 Hon. J. S. Dodds,C.M.G., C.J.) presiding, 



APOLOGIES. 



The Secretary (Mr. Alex. Morton) read 

 apologies from the senior vice-president 

 (the Hon. Sir James Agnew, K.C.M.G., 

 M,D.), the Bishop of Tasmania, Right 

 Rev. H. H. Montgomery, D.D., R. M. 

 .Johnston, F.L.S., vice-presidents ; the 

 Hons. N. J. Brown, C. H. Grant, Ms.E.C.; 

 Messrs. A. G. Webster, and R. S. Bright, 

 M.R.C.S.E. 



PAPERS. 



Botanical Notes.— By L. Rodway. 



The writer said he should be sorry to let 

 the current year close without recording 

 original information that has been gleaned 

 about Tasmanian plants meagre though it 

 is. Amongst the flowering plants he ob- 

 tained a specimen of Hakea rostrata F. v. M. 

 from the neighbourhood of George's Bay. 

 This plant has hitherto only been found in 

 Victoria and South Australia. It is 

 worthy of note that H. nodosce R. Br., 

 which has a similar distribution on the 

 Australian continent, is also only found in 

 Tasmania at George's Bay. Hakea rostrata 

 is very similar to the more common Tas- 

 manian Hakea epiglottis Lab, which, how- 

 ever, is purely Tasmanian. Except to a 

 man well acquainted with the genius H. 

 rostrata would pass for H. epiglottis with 

 rather large fruit. Atriplex cinerea var. 

 semiglabrata. This form which he 

 treated as a distinct variety, grows in 

 swampy land at Maddy Plains, and 

 thought it right to be considered a distinct 

 variety to be somewhat shady. Only 

 its appearance is so different and 

 it grows in the immediate locality 

 of the type form showing the difference to 

 be due not merely to environment. This 

 form differs from the type in being more 

 slender, ascending to suberect, and the 

 members generally more slender. But the 

 most marked peculiarity is that on the 

 upper surface of the leaves there is a 

 complete absence of scales, this being 

 glabrous, shining, and green. Cylindro- 

 capsa Involuta Rein. — This common 

 filamentoas alga^ which has not, that I am 

 aware, yet been recorded from Tasmania, 

 occurs in quantitp on the wet surface of 

 rocks at Port Davey, forming quite a slimy 

 coat. Among the fungi, Mr. Rodway said 

 he would record first Barlsea Archeri Sacec, 

 which he left out of the systematic list 

 that he recently published, owing to the 

 statement of Cooke in his " Handbook of 

 Australian Fungi" that he had found 



Berkeley's specimen to be only a collapsed 

 myxogaster. He would note also that 

 Cooke's habitat, " On dead leaves of a 

 succulent plant," is quite erroneous, as this 

 fungus grows on the ground, and prefer- 

 ably burnt soil. Also the names of fungi 

 new to Tasmania, and some new to science. 

 The latter, which he had the honour to be 

 associated with Geo. Massee, will be de- 

 scribed in due course in the Kew Bulletin. 



The following is a list of the plants re- 

 ferred to : — Hygrophorus ceraceus, Pries. ; 

 Polyporus nanus, Mass. et Rod. ; Hydnum 

 coralloides. Scop. ; Hymenochaete fuli- 

 ginosa, Cooke ; Hymenogaster albicus, 

 Mass. et Rod.; Rhizina atra, Mass etRod.; 

 Rhizina feruginea, Phil.; Humariaompha- 

 lodes, Mass. ; Barlsee Archeri, Sacc. ; Bul- 

 gariella pulla, Harst. ; Hypocrea, lenta, 

 Berk. ; Pleospora liniperda, Phem. ; Us- 

 tilago microspora, Mass. et Rod. ; Uro- 

 myces caryophyllus, Schr. ; Macrosporium 

 atriplices, Mass. et Rod. 



list of the described tasmanian col- 



EOPTERA, by ARTHUR M. LEA (GOVERN- 

 MENT entomologist). 



The coleoptera of Tasmania have never 

 been considered as a whole since the time 

 of Erichson, and no list or catalogue of the 

 species has ever been compiled. About 

 10,000 have now been recorded from Aus- 

 tralia and Tasmania, of which scarcely 400 

 have been expressly described from Tas- 

 mania. A very imperfect knowledge of 

 what species are confined to the island as 

 species supposed only to occur there are 

 constantly turning up in Victoria and New 

 South Wales, and even sometimes in West 

 Australia and Queensland. I have thought 

 it advisable, therefore, to prepare a list of 

 the species hitherto recorded from Tas- 

 mania, adding to the list such species as 1 

 personally know to occur, or which vari- 

 ous friends have taken or received from 

 there. No attempt has been made to com- 

 pare the Tasmanian with the Australian 

 fauna, as such a comparison could scarcely 

 be of any use in the present state of our 

 knowledge, and especially without a much 

 better knowledge of the species occurring 

 on Mount Kosciusko and other mountains 

 of the Australian Alps, and which (notice- 

 able also amongst the plants) show a very 

 close affinity with Tasmania. 



tasmanian aborigines. 



Mr. J. B. Walker, F.R.G.S., read a most 

 interesting paper entitled, " Tasmanian 

 Abrogines, their Customs and Habits," 

 illustrated with some specially prepared 

 lantern slides. 



