THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Club, both at our annual conversaziones and at the monthly 

 meetings. 



During the past twelve months several interesting papers have 

 been read. Mr. A. Dendy, whose scientific papers form so 

 important a feature of the Royal Society's transactions, contributed 

 an interesting, and I think I may say an amusing, sketch of the 

 cryptozoic fauna of Walhalla. The same accomplished writer 

 has contributed a paper giving the external characters of a new 

 Australian Peripatus. 



Mr. Frost's notes on spiders may, it is trusted, lead members to 

 watch more carefully these interesting if unattractive specimens of 

 animal life. What scope for observation there is of the webs and 

 nests of these little creatures, of their mode of capturing and 

 killing their prey, of the particular insects which form the 

 favourite food of each species, of the enemies to which they are 

 exposed, and the protective resemblances which even they possess ! 



The Rev. F. R. M. Wilson has proved a constant contributor 

 to our journal, having furnished no fewer than six papers or notes 

 on the branch of botany to which he devotes himself. In these 

 papers 52 new species of lichens are described by the author, and 

 54 others are enumerated as first found in Victoria. It may be 

 hoped that his enthusiasm for this department of botany may prove 

 contagious as there is great need for more observers and collectors 

 throughout the colonies. 



Baron von Mueller has continued to give scientific value to 

 our journal by publishing from time to time descriptions of new 

 species of Australian plants, including three (an orchid and two 

 composites) found in Victoria. 



Among the papers on entomological subjects which have been 

 read during the year may be mentioned " Contributions towards 

 a Local List of Coleoptera found at Mulwala, New South Wales," 

 by Mr. T. G. Sloane, and ''Notes on the Rutherglen Flying Bug 

 Pest," by Mr. C. French, F.L.S., Government Entomologist, in 

 which an interesting account is given of a plague of a small plant 

 bug which appeared almost simultaneously in widely distant 

 localities in Australia early this year, and which was proving 

 very destructive in vineyards. Mr. French has also described, 

 in the pages of the journal, a longicorn beetle new to Victoria. 

 Mr. F. C. Christy has given a useful account of the habits of 

 the Codlin Moth, deduced from his own observations. 



Mr. C. French, jun., contributed " Notes of a Collecting Trip 

 to Swan Hill District ; " Mr. E. M. Cornwall, a paper on 

 "Collecting Near Home ; " and Mr. John Dennant, F.G.S., gave 

 the only paper of the year on a geological subject — " Notes on 

 the Bed of a Dried-up Creek near Coleraine." 



Dr. W. Woolls, an honorary member, has been good enough to 

 contribute a paper on the distribution of aquatic plants in New 



