PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 163 
A paper on Fungi observed at West Kilbride was submitted by 
the Chairman (Professor King) and Mr. D. A. Boyd. (See page 
61.) 
27TH Marcu, 1894. 
Professor Thomas King, President, in the chair. 
The Chairman referred to the great loss which the Society had 
sustained through the death of Mr. Robert Turner. He moved 
and it was unanimously agreed that a memorial notice of the 
deceased should be prepared by the Secretary and read at next 
meeting of the Society. 
Mr. Alexander Ross, 14 Otago Street, was elected an Ordinary 
Member. 
Mr. John Grieve, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.E., F.LS.,* exhibited 
specimens of Trepang, Holothuria edulis, Less. After describing 
the structural characteristics of this and allied species of Echino- 
dermata, he made some remarks on the commercial value of 
Trepang as a food product. Various kinds are sold in the Canton 
market, and these differ greatly in price. The Kurok Trepang, 
from Borneo, sells at £9 7s. 6d. per picul of 133 lbs., while the 
small bald Trepang, from Leucoma, only fetches 7 dollars. In Mr. 
Savile Kent’s beautiful book entitled The Great Barrier Reef 
of Australia, which was published several months ago, some 
interesting particulars are given regarding the mode of gathering 
and preparing this article of food, and also regarding its market 
value. The animals are collected at the two low tides (i.e. for 
eight or ten days of the lunar month), and are obtained by wading 
or diving in from two to five fathoms of water. They are boiled 
for twenty minutes, split longitudinally and gutted like herring, 
washed, and laid out in the sunshine to dry. When the moisture 
has about all evaporated, they are stacked in the smoke-house in 
tiers of wire-netting and smoked for twenty-four hours, the wood 
used being the red mangrove (Zhizophora mucronata). I£ properly 
cured, they should then have become as hard as stones, should 
_ rattle like walnuts in a bag, and should have all shrunk to the 
length of six inches or less, and become in appearance very like 
charred sausages. They are then ready for the market, and some 
of the best are packed in tin cases. The largest species collected 
