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be worthy of record, and a well -arranged series would be of 

 uncommon interest. In regard to fish — many Tasmanian 

 fishes must be new to science — I myself, as one unlearned, 

 was struck by the beautiful paintings of strange Tasmanian 

 fish, which Mrs. ISIeredith with a kindness equal to her 

 talent, painted for the Philadelphia Exhibition. Looking 

 on their quaint and sometimes grotesque forms, one eould 

 not but hope that the mine of inquiry they indicated might 

 be worked by some of our young Tasmanians, and that 

 they, and other yet perhaps unnoted species, as well as our 

 commoner sorts, might be compared with other Australian 

 fish, and those of more distant regions. Indeed some of 

 the quaint ones to which I have alluded, reminded me 

 forcibly of the strange forms of life that I have wondered 

 at amongst the sea weed of the Sargasso sea floating out 

 into the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. The anatomy of 

 fishes is also a field in which very much, remains to be 

 done. In the MoUusca proper I am told that everything 

 has to be done amongst the Pteropods. The Gasteropods 

 otfer a wide field for investigation in accurate determination 

 of species, in details of anatomy, in dependence of form and 

 colour of shells on sex, from absence of any facts regarding 

 which I learn that many male and female of the same 

 species have been regarded as different ; observations are 

 recjuired on the lingual ribbon, to which the Rev. Julian 

 Woods has already, at a meeting last year, directed our 

 attention, and which is a matter of great value for the 

 determination of species. I might here give a long list of 

 families of which little or nothing is known ; for instance, 

 our Polyzoa, several new forms of which have been 

 observed by the distinguished correspondent of your 

 Society to whom I have just made reference. We have 

 also many new and interesting forms of Crustacea on which 

 the light of science has scarcely been thrown. Of the 

 Echinodermata several orders remain untouched. Then — • 

 to come to the science of Botany ; a science which leads to 

 the contemplation of such exceedingly beautiful objects, 

 and organisations of such wonderful interest and delicacy, 

 that the devotion of its votaries to their favourite pursuit 

 can be no matter of wonder. Much has been done in 

 Australia by many eminent men in regard to Botany. I 

 need only allude to the labours of BaroTi von Miieller, of 

 Victoria, as one instance, and Tasmania in this branch has 

 been distinguished by the researches of Mr. Ronald Gunn 



