BY A. NORTON, ESQ., M.L.A. 39 
what similar appearance to that of the specimen referred to, 
but on quite a small scale; whenever this happens, how- 
ever, it is always easy to connect the excrescence with the 
root of a living tree. But in the specimen under notice no 
such plausible explanation can be afforded; the size of the 
stump would of itself upset such a theory; and then there 
is no other living tree of the same kind in very close 
proximity to it. I cannot suggest any explanation myself, 
because none has ever occurred to me which commended 
itself for acceptance. All I wish to do, therefore, is to 
record the simple fact in the hope that someone else with 
more extended knowledge of plant life will throw some 
light upon it. It would be well perhaps to add that the 
stump is growing in poor soil, close beside a small blind 
gully, in which the water after a shower does not last for 
more than a week or two. 
Mr. A. J. Turner endeavoured to account for this unusual 
occurrence by the supposition that the roots of the tree- 
stump inosculated with those of saplings or other trees 
which might be growing even at a distance of many feet, 
and the foliage of which might affect the elaboration of the 
sap and the assimilation of the food substance on which the 
vitality depended. 
Dr. J. Bancroft, in reference to the tenacity of life of the 
spotted gum tree, alluded to a curious instance where a 
whole tree, its natural attachment to the ground having 
been severed, had maintained its life by intimate coales- 
cence with the tissues of the branches of two neighbouring 
trees into which it had fallen. 
OBJECTS EXHIBITED. 
By Dr. J. Bancroft, a series of photographs of tropical 
Rhizophora, which had been prepared by his son, Dr. T. L. 
Bancroft, to illustrate the investigations of the former on 
the nature of lenticels in plants. This subject the exhibitor 
enlarged upon, especially with reference to his views as to 
their respiratory function. 
