THE 



^ictovian ^ainxali^t. 



Vol. YI.— No. 9. JANUARY, 1890. No. 73' 



THE FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB OF VICTORIA. 



The monthly meeting of the Club was held at the Royal Society's 

 Hall, on Monday evening, 9th December, 1889. 



The president, Mr. C. A. Topp, M.A., F.L.S., occupied the 

 chair, and about 50 members and visitors were present. 



The hon. librarian reported the receipt of the following donations 

 to the library: — " Prodromus of Zoology of Victoria," decade 

 xix., from the Government ; " List of Named Insects in the South 

 Australian Museum," 2nd series, from Mr. J. O. Tepper, F.L.S. ; 

 " President's Address to Royal Society of Tasmania," from the 

 Society ; " Proceedings of the Australasian Association for the 

 Advancement of Science," vol. i., Sydney, 1888, from the 

 Association; and "Journal of Pharmacy," November, 1889. 



The hon. secretary read a brief report of the excursion to Ring- 

 wood on Saturday, 30th November, which was only moderately 

 attended, owing to the heat Insects were not so numerous as 

 anticipated. The principal captures were two species of skippers 

 (Telesto), Lyccena mcsrens and Lucia (sp.) also several larvae. 

 Insects of other orders were scarce. Of flowering plants, the 

 following species were noted as somewhat uncommon : — Gompholo- 

 bium huegellii, Aster myrshioides , and the orchid Cryptostylis 

 lojigifolia, which latter was rather plentiful. The direction taken 

 was northerly from Ringwood towards Anderson's Creek. 



On a ballot being taken, the Rev. G. D. Hutton, Messrs. C. 

 Merton and J. West were duly elected members of the Club. 



Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., Government Botanist, 

 forwarded for inspection an advance copy of the new edition of 

 the " Census of Australian Plants ; " also a copy of his essay on 

 Sir William M'Gregor's "Highland Plants of New Guinea," 

 containing descriptions of eighty species of plants. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. By Mr. C. Frost, entitled " On the Habits and Senses of 

 Spiders — Part I." The author, in course of his remarks, stated 

 that the value of spiders as destroyers of insect pests was hardly 

 appreciated, and urged that they should be preserved rather than 

 destroyed at every opportunity. He stated that from the result of 

 his experiments very few spiders were capable of inflicting any 

 injury to human beings. 



