lIOLMEbDALK NATUEAL HISiOKT CLi-B. 3 



belonging to the genera Aspleniim, Davallea, Polijpodium, Phy- 

 matodes, Niphoholiis, and Pleoioettis ; he pointed out the graceful 

 habit of many of these plants when allowed to grow naturally, and 

 the remarkable difference which some of the species exhibited in 

 their sterile and fertile fronds. 



13</t December, 187:2. — The President read the minutes of the 

 Microscopical Section of the Club, together with a list, presented by 

 Dr. Eossey, of such Natural History objects as had been found in 

 the district, and whose names had been defined. 



The President exhibited two rare birds from New Zealand, which 

 probably, like the Great Auk and Dodo, will become extinct before 

 very long ; they were the Apteryx, well known as a wingless bird, 

 but easily hunted down, although swift of foot, and the Striugops, or 

 Owl-parrot, a bird of nocturnal habits, forming a connecting link 

 between the birds from which it has been named; it flies with 

 difiBculty, and is easily taken. He also called attention to a 

 remarkable series of moths furnished with appendages to the abdo- 

 men, legs, wings and palpi. Few instances were to be met with of 

 their occurrence among the diurnal Lepidoptera, but they seemed 

 more common among the nocturnal species. These appendages 

 usually consisted of bundles of elongated scales or hair-like sub- 

 stances, and at times were so large in proportion to the insects 

 themselves that entomologists had been much puzzled to account for 

 such extraordinary development ; but the President observed that a 

 careful examination of the habits and economy of the insects would 

 doubtless show that they had essential functions to fulfil. 



23rf? Januari/, 1873.— W. T. Thistleton Dyer, F.L.S., Professor 

 of Botany to the Pioyal Horticultural Society, delivered a lecture on 

 " Some different Aspects of the AVorld's Vegetation." 



lith February, 1873.— The President stated that the rainfall for 

 the past year at Hillfield had been 38-85 ; the average of the fifteen 

 preceding years was 29-33, which included the very dry season of 

 1858, when 19-66 only was recorded. 



