THE VICTORIAN NATDRALIST. 



Considerable discussion took place on the opinions offered, in which 

 Messrs. Topp, A. H. S. Lucas, and D. McAlpine were the principal 

 speakers. 



Mr. Topp pointed out that the oospores of cryptogams were 

 strictly homologous with the enibryoes of flowering plants. 



Mr. Lucas defended the use of the term fruit in Systematie 

 Cryptogamic Botany, where no possible confusion of ideas was pot^sible. 

 The term had been used by all great botanists in a conveniently 

 loose sense from Linnasus down to Fries, Berkeley, Hooker, and 

 Mueller. The word was taken from the common language, and it 

 was not possible for the authors of text-books to make their 

 definition compulsory on the great masters. Similar terms were 

 used in a general sense in zoology, where no confusion could arise, 

 and where the multiplication of exact technical terms was cumbersome. 



Mr. J\[c Alpine preferred to adhere to a strictly scientific use of the 

 term. He was preparing a work on the life histories of some 

 cryptogamic forms, and hoped to present in that work a simple 

 and satisfactory nomenclature for the products of reproduction. 



2. By Mr. McAlpine, F.C.S., entitled " The Dry Preservation of 

 Animal Specimens for Museum and Teaching Purposes." The 

 author gave an interesting account of the experiments he had made 

 with tlie view of preserving zoological specimens in a perfectly 

 natural way, and, though not the actual inventor of the process, he 

 had succeeded in producing an interesting series of exhibits, such 

 as preparations of parts of animals, frogs, snails, etc. He expressed 

 the hope that some of the members of the Club would take up his 

 method, as it was the only one by which the complete structure 

 of the different specimens could be shown, and stated that it is 

 now in use by several of the universities, etc., on the continent of 

 Europe. 



The following were the principal exhibits: — By Mr. A. J. 

 Campbell, eggs of Australian night-jars, viz., spotted night-jar, 

 {Eiirostopodus guttatus), white-throated night-jar, (JE'. a(boguhtris\ 

 and large-tailed night-jar, (^Caprimulgus mucrourus); by the Rev. 

 A. W. Cress well, original models of the forms of crystals; by Mr. 

 P. Dattari, diied specimens of Victorian ferns, Ci/athea Boylei, 

 and Davallia dubta, (crested); by Mr. J. E. Dixon, portion of 

 fossil whale from older pliocene beds at Cheltenham; by Mr. T. A. 

 Forbes-Leith, British birds, viz., the landrail, (Crex pratensis) the 

 water-rail, (Ralliis aquaticus), the dipper, (^Cinches aquaticus), and 

 ring ouzel, (^Turdus torqu,atiis)\ by Mr. C. French, F.L.S., group of 

 rare Australian beetles, Buprestidje, also spechnens of the white- 

 eared hcney-eater, (Ftilotis hmcotis), and the yellow-faced honey- 

 eater, (P. chr^sops), which have this season destroyed large qunntities 

 of grapes in the Frankstou district; by Master C. French, fossils 

 from New Guinea; by Mr. E. II. Henuell, about lOU species of 



