80 



THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



prevent their indiscriminate removal. They furnish, and by 

 judicious management they may continue to furnish, some of the 

 strongest and most durable of timber. They afford in their resins, 

 their barks, and their volatile oils many substances useful for 

 economic and therapeutic purposes, whilst it is a fact that those 

 who live in the country and inhale the gases emanating from their 

 leaves can bear testimony to their sanitary properties. Nor 

 should it be forgotten that such are their powers of absorption in 

 relieving unhealthy districts of malaria and stagnant waters that 

 their influence has been acknowledged in the Old as well as the 

 New World. 



BURW^OOD, 30^A March, 1891. 



Note. — In justice to Baron Mueller, I should state that he refers to the 

 ravages of the opossums principally on the testimony of others, and that they 

 are mentioned only incidentally in connection with other causes ot destruction. 

 I may add, however, that when this question was discussed some time since 

 one of the members, in the Sydney Morning Herald, gave several reasons for 

 believing that the opossums in his district caused much destruction to the 

 Eucalypts. — W. W. 



HENRY EDWARDS. 



AVe regret to have to record the death of Mr. Henry Edwards, 

 the distinguished actor, who was a member of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club of Victoria. Mr. Edwards had achieved a high 

 reputation in his profession, both in Australia and in the United 

 States. He was born in 1824, at Ross, in Monmouthshire, 

 England. He came to Victoria early in the fifties, and soon 

 became well known in Melbourne in association with Mr. G. V. 

 Brooke. He devoted his leisure time to entomology, and was 

 one of the very first to study our Victorian Lepidoptera. 

 Proceeding to America in 1867, he continued his favourite study, 

 and during the last thirty-five years of his life had formed one of 

 the largest private collections of insects in the United States. 

 Between 1886 and 1889 he devoted the whole of his leisure time 

 to compiling a bibliographical catalogue of the described trans- 

 formations of the North American Lepidoptera, including about 

 a thousand species. This was published by the Smithsonian 

 Institute at Washington, and is a monument of scientific enthus- 

 iasm and patient and laborious research. He paid a second 

 visit to Melbourne in 1889, and was present at some of the 

 meetings of the Club. He made further observations on the 

 transformations of Victorian Lepidoptera, and published descrip- 

 tions of certain of these in this journal. Mr. Edwards was an 

 eminently lovable man, and his loss is deeply felt by a large 

 circle of private friends in Melbourne, as well as by the general 

 public, who were delighted by his representations. 



