THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



F.L.S., traced the history of this plant at the Gardens from about 

 i860. 



Mr. F. G. A. Barnard asked if the American pest, known as 

 " Water Hyacinth," was still spreading in the Gardens? 



Mr. C. French, jun., replied that it had all been taken out. 



Mr. J. H. Gatliff mentioned that, with reference to the question 

 raised at the last meeting as to the weight of the shells Hermit 

 Crabs could move about, he had weighed the two largest shells 

 he had found Hermit Crabs inhabiting, with the result that a 

 shell of Votula mammillata, 8% ozs., was heaviest ; others were 

 Lotorium australis, 6^ ozs. ; Voluta fusiformis, 6 ozs. ; and 

 V. papillosa, 4 ozs. 



EXHIBITS. 



Mr. F. G. A. Barnard. — Fungus, Schizophyllum commune, 

 Fries., growing on dead Laburnum. By Mr. C. French, F.L.S. — 

 Painting of Dacelo gigas. By Mr. Jas. A. Kershaw. — Three 

 specimens of Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, Seleucides nigricans, 

 New Guinea — two immature males showing change in plumage, 

 one female. By Mr. D. Le Souef. — Three skins of Craspedo- 

 phora alberti, Albert Rifle-bird, showing change of plumage in 

 male. By Mr. D. M'Alpine. — Oyster fungus, Pleurotus ostreatus, 

 phosphorescent, found at Beaumaris, 6th April, 1899. By Mr. 

 F. M. Reader, — Dried specimens of the grass Stipa teretifolia, 

 Stendel, new for N.W. of Victoria, and Schoznus humilis, Benth., 

 new for Victoria By Mr. H. T. Tisdall. — Coloured drawings of 

 Dipodium punctatum and Orthoceras strictum ; also dried speci- 

 mens of Cryptandra vexillifera, Alyxia buxifolia, C otocephalus 

 brownii, and thirteen other flowering plants, also six seaweeds, in 

 illustration of his paper. 



After the usual conversazione the meeting terminated. 



EXCURSION TO HEIDELBERG. 



The excursion to Heidelberg, adjourned from the preceding week, 

 took place on Saturday, the 17th February. A fair number 

 of members attended, including a representative of the botanists 

 of the Club, Mr. H. T. Tisdall, who devoted himself to collecting 

 water-plants, and has furnished a short note on those obtained. 



The crescent-shaped pool near " Springbank " was first visited, 

 and though yielding but few of the colonial forms of Rotifera, so 

 plentiful at the corresponding period of last season, supplied the 

 visitors with several interesting water-plants, the Freshwater 

 Mussel, Unio (sp.), and some attached clusters of the rotifer 

 Lacinularia pedunculata. Some free-swimming colonies were 

 also observed, and were too hastily put aside as probably L. 

 natans, a form very commonly found. A visit a month later pro- 

 cured colonies which, on examination, proved to be a species of 



