42 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The report was adopted, and a sub-committee, consisting of 

 Messrs. Frost and Le Souef and Professor Spencer, was ap- 

 pointed to make the necessary arrangements. 



Mr. F. G. A. Barnard pointed out that if the whole of the 

 Kew Asylum reserve were sold by the Government, a valuable 

 collecting ground would be destroyed. A strip of some ioo 

 yards should be reserved along either bank of the Yarra. 



The secretary was directed to communciate with the Premier 

 on the subject. 



Mrs. Martin read an account of work done in cryptogamic 

 botany during the year, by herself and other members, and urged 

 the advisability of establishing sections for the special study of 

 such departments of natural history. ' 



PAPERS READ. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland read a paper entitled "Notes on the 

 Australian Teal." Gould and other writers had considered the 

 Chestnut-breasted Teal to be simply the male of the common 

 species in nuptial plumage. It, however, is found at all seasons, 

 and is certainly a distinct species, differing also in minor char- 

 acters of the skeleton and colour of the eggs. It is especially 

 found in hilly districts. 



Professor Spencer described two rare hydroids, Dehitella 

 atrorubens and Ceratdla fusca, lately found for the first time in 

 Port Phillip. 



Mr. Luehmann, on behalf of Baron von Mueller, read a 

 paper on some new species of plants — Eriostemcn carruthersi, 

 Bassia sucedacea, B. luehmanni, Heripterum jesstni ; and also 

 mentioned the discovery, by Mr. C. French, jun., of an orchid 

 Corysanthes unguiculata, not before known from Victoria. 



Mr. Wm. J. Ryott Maughan, the secretary of the Royal Society 

 of Queensland, who was present at the meeting, exhibited a 

 specimen of the Sechiwn edule, or Chocho, which has lately been 

 successfully introduced into Queensland from Jamaica. The 

 plant is perennial, cucurbitaceous, and a strong climber. The 

 fruit weighs about 3^ lbs., and has only one seed, which' projects 

 from the end. 



The principal exhibits of the evening were as follows : — By Mr. 

 G. A. Keartland. — Common and Chestnut-breasted Teal and 

 eggs. By Professor Spencer. — Two species of Hydroida. By Baron 

 von Mueller. — Dried specimens of the plants above mentioned, 

 drawings of different Bassias, and plates of other Salsolacese. By 

 Rev. E. H. Hennell. — Fossil Shells from Muddy Creek and casts 

 from the Moorabool River ; Lignite from Harz Mountains, Ger- 

 many ; Lignite (?) from beneath 80 feet basaltic lava at Richmond, 

 showing microscopic iron pyrites ; petrified wood, showing the 

 Teredo in situ, from the Moorabool River, near Lethbridge 



