68 The South Australian Naturalist. 



The Decapods have ei^ht short and two lonof tentacles, 

 all well furnished with suckers. The ''Cuttle bone'' cast up 

 on our beaches is the internal shell of Sepia apama, and often 

 bears the imprint of the teeth of the fish w^hich ate the animal. 

 This creature is the source from which the artists' sepia is 

 obtained, and in rocks perhaps millions of years old deposits 

 of this "ink" have been found. Sometimes on the beach after 

 a storm the bead-like egga can be found and the young seen 

 moving in them ! Another small bone or shell is frequently 

 found, which has been named Sepia Braggii, but the anmial 

 which makes it has never been seen. Members were asked to 

 keep a look out for it ! The common squid is well known, but 

 its shell, being very thin, is rarely seen on the beach. Its 

 flesh is greatly prized as fish bait, and many millions are used 

 for this purpose all over the world, especially in cod fisheries. 

 An enormous "squid" is found in the North Atlantic, and is 

 the principal food of the sperm whale, as it has often been 

 stated by whalers that when a whale is harpooned it "vomits 

 portions of a Cephalopod of great size." They are not often 

 seen, but specimens with a body twenty feet long, having 

 tentacles of thirty-five feet, have been measured. The most 

 interesting of the Decapods is Spirula Peronii, which is of 

 world-wide distribution, but although great numbers of the 

 shells are cast up the animal has ver^' rarely been taken. It is 

 very small, and inside the lower part of its body it makes a 

 pearly, chambered shell, which rivals that of the pearly nauti- 

 lus in structure, nad yet which only acts as a support, as it is 

 not occupied by the animal in any stage of its existence, so far 

 as is known. 



There was not time to deal with the Gasteropoda, or 

 "stomach-footed" Molluscs, but a few specimens of shells 

 were shown, and a species of Haliotis from Florida, lent by 

 Mr. Walton, was greatly admired, its changing iridescence, as 

 viewed in the episcope, being really beautiful. 



Lecture, August 15, 1922. — Professor J. B. Cleland spoke 

 on "Mushrooms, Toadstools, and other large Fungi." The 

 lecturer began by referring to the various forms of fungi, 

 bacteria, then fungi formed of mere shreads, and lastly fungi 

 having definite structures. The latter are divided into two 

 main classes, those having their spores contained in various 

 sac-like bodies, and those in which the spores are raised on 

 typhae. By means of the episcope the lecturer showed a 

 number of typical fungi illustrative of the various classes. In 

 the Basidiomycetes many of the parasitic fungi were shown, 



