1500 are worth preserving. Many of these are valuable, while of others 

 it may be said, the wonder is they ever found a lodging here at all ! 

 Not a few agaiu, though well preserved have lost much of their value 

 from the fact of their localities and other ' indicia ' not having been pre- 

 served. Taken as a whole I think that the following may 



probably be made available, viz. : 200 Tasmanian, 300 Australian, and 

 900 European. 



" If the Society cares to have them arranged I shall be very hapjjy to 

 take the collections in hand, and to put them in what order I can. 



" I remain, etc. etc., 

 " W. W. Spicer." 



The Secretary remarked that the letter had already been read 

 before the Council, and the Council, fully recognising the great im- 

 portance of the work done, had requested hun to convey to Mr. Spicer 

 their warmest thanks for his valuable services, and further to say that 

 they most gladly accepted his very kind offer to classify and arrange the 

 remaining plants in the museum. (General applause.) 



The Eev. Julian Woods observed that Mr. Spicer, whose reputation as 

 a botanist required no comment, had laid the Society under a great 

 obligation. The Society was now fortunate in having such a Herbarium, 

 as it could be truly called a type collection — such a collection indeed as no 

 other colonial society with which he was acquainted, possessed. He 

 thought the suggestion thrown out as to an appeal for contributions of 

 various • kinds might be acted upon with great hopes of success. On 

 former occasions he had spoken of the richness of the liVjrary in scientific 

 works. There were some works however which might be advantageously 

 exchanged. He had noticed in the Public Library a work which might thus 

 perhaps be acquired, and which, though comparatively valueless where it 

 is, would be an acquisition to our library. He referred to De CandoUe's 

 Prodromus. 



The Secretary mentioned that his attention had been called to a para- 

 graph in a recent Edinburgh paper which he thought was of sufficient 

 interest to be brought before the Society as it referred to the apparently 

 successful growth of the Blue Gum and other Australian trees as far North 

 as the Isle of Arran, in the Frith of Clyde. Mr. Grant had suggested that 

 the cu'cumstances of the gum flourishing in such a latitude might be 

 owing the local influence of the Gulf Stream. The writer says : — 

 " This winter has been sufiiciently severe, and having visited Arran 

 this week I give you the result. The Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus) 

 unhurt, but the leaves a good deal browned ; two varieties of the 

 Weeping gum unhurt, but the points of the twigs slightly nipped ; the 

 Beef Wood ( Casuarina equisetifoUaJ a good deal nipped ; Acacia dealhata, 

 untouched ; Acacia mdanoxylon, slightly browned ; Accacia stricta, 

 sUghtly nipped ; the great Australian bush fern ( Dicl'sonia antarctica) 

 untouched ; the silvered Tree Fern of New Zealand untouched ; the fine 

 Australian Palm (Corypha Australis), which grows in its native country to 

 the height of fifty feet, untouched ; a fine Myrtle ( Myrtus communis) 

 ten feet in height, untouched. Almost all these plants are standards. 

 None of them had any protection save a few fern leaves around their 

 roots." 



E. C. NowELL, Esq., the Government Statistician, read an elaborate and 

 carefully prepared paper "On the Vital Statistics of Tasmania, with 

 especial reference to the Mortality of Children." 



The Bishop expressed the great gratification with which he had 

 listened to Mr. Nowell's paper. As a member of the Statistical Society 

 of London, and a former secretary to the statistical section at one of the 

 meetings of the British Association, he took great interest in statistics 



