136. Exhibition of Wild-floivers. [ 



Vict. Nat. 

 Vol. XXXVI. 



EXHIBITION OF WILD-FLOWERS. 



Members will be pleased to learn that the exhibition of wild- 

 flowers, held on 30th September last, resulted in a profit of 

 £163 14s. iid., being £22 12s. 2d. more than that of the 

 previous one. The receipts were made up as follows : — 

 Admissions, £160 3s. 2d., and sales of flowers, &c., £55 4s. id., 

 while the expenses amounted to £52 2s. 4d. As intended, the 

 profit was divided by handing £Si 17s. 6d. to the Victorian 

 branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers' Imperial League 

 of Australia for the Anzac House Fund, and depositing 

 £81 17s. 5d. in the Savings Bank as a fund for publishing a list 

 of popular names for Victorian plants. 



In acknowledging the receipt of the amount above named, 

 the secretary of the League says : — " It is indeed gratifying 

 to know that your Club is displaying so keen an interest in the 

 welfare of our returned soldiers, which fact is in itself proof 

 conclusive that you are a representative body of loyal citizens 

 who are striving by every possible means to reward those who 

 made sacrifices for the whole of the Empire." 



The best means of carrying out the intention of publishing 

 the popular names of Victorian plants is now under considera- 

 tion by the Plant Names Committee of the Club, who will be 

 pleased to have suggestions in writing from those interested 

 as to the form such a list should take, and the details which 

 might be embraced in it. 



EXCURSION TO FITZROY GARDENS. 



On Saturday afternoon, 29th November, a party of members 

 visited the Fitzroy Gardens, for the first time as a Club 

 excursion, for the purpose of seeing what life the various 

 fountain-ponds and other pools would afford. The Curator 

 of the Gardens had kindly arranged that Mr. Reeves, the 

 foreman, should accompany the party round the Gardens 

 and enable the members to secure what specimens they 

 desired. A fountain-pond near Clarendon-street, which had 

 apparently been undisturbed for some time, was first visited. 

 Here we found quite an extraordinary quantity of the beau- 

 tiful polyzoan, Plumatella repeals, occurring on the under 

 surface of the Nymphaea leaves. All the older leaves examined 

 bore fine dendriform colonies, in some cases practically over- 

 spreading the whole surface of the leaf. On examination 

 under the microscope numerous statoblasts (reproductive 

 bodies) were found to be present. In the material collected at 

 this pool Mr. J. Wilcox was fortunate enough to find the elegant 

 and decidedly uncommon rotifer, Stephanoceros eichhornii. It 

 is somewhat remarkable that of the four localities where this 

 rotifer has been found by us three have been ornamental ponds 



