THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 33 



FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



FOURTH ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE. 



The Fourth Annual Conversazior.e of this Club was held at the 

 Royal Society's Hall, on Monday evening, 30th April, and, like its 

 predecessors, was exceedingly Avell attended by both members and 

 tlie public, so much so, indeed, that it will be necessary for the Club 

 to consider the desirability of holding the next one in rooms afford- 

 ing more spacious accommodation. This large attendance was 

 certainly well deserved, if only for the excellence of the numerous 

 exliibits, many of which must have cost the exhibitors a great deal 

 of time and patience in the procuring and setting them up, not to 

 mention the constant care required to keep them in the well-preserved 

 condition in which they were shown. 



Of the President's a .dress, as it will appear in full in the present 

 number of the Victorian Naturalist, it is not necessary to say more 

 than that it was delivered in the Hon. Dr. Dobson's happiest style. He 

 referred to the past doings of the Club, and to its present flourishing 

 ■condition, and made suggestions for future work, including the compila- 

 tion of a botanical Key , similar to one published for the Tasmaniau 

 Hora, by Rev. W. Sincer , and a recommendation to adopt a suggestion 

 made to him iu a letter from Professor F. McCoy, that members 

 should study the numerous insects, parasitic on native and 

 cultivated ])laiits, also the galls on various leaves, and the insects 

 jiroducing them. In concluding he referred, with regret, to the 

 continued indisposition of Baron F. Von Mueller, to whom the 

 Club is under obligations for information always most readily 

 afforded, and who, it was generally hoped, would soon be fully 

 restored to his usual health and energy. 



Immediately following the address,^ M r. C. A. Topp gave an 

 interesting biography of the Caoe weed .'*so common all over the 

 •colony, and known to almost everyone by its yellow flowers, which 

 are in some places so numerous as to give the appearance of forming 

 a yellow carpet. Mr. Toptj dates its introduction into the colony at 

 about the year 1840. and, with other particulars, described the <- "? 3> 1" 

 :adaptation by which its cross fertilisatioji was secured. After 

 an interval devoted to the inspection of the exhibits, the audience 

 •again assembled to hear from Mr. A. H. S. Lucas, a short 

 lecturette, entitled " Common Objects of the Seashore." In this, 

 Mr. Lucas described many of the objects he has met witli in his 

 rambles on the Victorian coast. He also pointed out that the coasts 

 of this colony present, perhaps, the best field for studying the 

 ■questions of geographical distribution, and of the variation of species. 



Of the exhibits themselves, where all were so good, it is almost 

 invidious to speak of tlieir relative excellence. Perhaps tlie moat 

 'interesting of all were the sp.^cimens of plants collected by Robert 

 Bromi. one of the first of Victorian Naturalists in the Port Phillip 

 ■district in 1802-4. These relics of the great botanist were shown 



