164 Vrocceding!^. 



Henry D'Arch, Esq., Coll. Customs, Hobart Town, Henry White, 

 Esq., Hobart Town, and Vv'illiam Franks, Esq., A. P.M. Fingal, 

 elected Fellows of the Society. 



Five volumes of Books presented by Messrs. H. & C. Best. 

 One volume on Timber Trees by Mr. Milligan. 

 A section of the butt of a small tree, from the Myal Scrubs, in the 

 Liverpool Eange, New South Wales, apparently an Acacia, and 

 probably the Acacia pendula, presented, together with a spirit 

 preparation, in a large glass jar, of a Fish (not named), by Captain 

 Denison. 



Sir Wm. Denison placed on the table a specimen of ore — compact 

 Oxide of Iron, feebly magnetic — from Long Bay, in D'Entre- 

 casteaux Channel, where it is said to occur in a seam or bed 2 feet 

 thick. 



The Secretary drew attention to a pulley or sheave of a block, 

 turned from the timber of a small and slow-growing indigenous tree 

 of Tasmania, the Notelia ligustrina (Vent.); its extreme hardness and 

 great density peculiarly adiipt it for such purposes. 



Mr. Morton Allport presented a large collection of dried skins of 

 Birds of Tasmania. 



Thanks voted for the various donations. 



The Secretary submitted a longitudinal section of the trunk of a 

 comparatively rare arborescent Fern {Alsophila Australis, Brown), 

 from " the Peaks" of Flinders' Island. It was formerly only known 

 as existing on Phillip's Island, Macquarie Harbour. Mr. Allport 

 has seen it on " the Bishop and Clerk" Mountain, at Maria Island ; 

 Mr. Ronald Gunn has lately found it in the neighbourhood of Mount 

 Direction, near the road from Launceston to George Town ; and 

 Mr. Milligan recently discovered it on the East Coast in a ravine 

 near the Douglas River. The pith in the uppermost part of the 

 column of a young and vigorons Alsophila is soft and succulent, and, 

 as compared with that from the common Tasmanian Fern Tree 

 {Cibotium Billardieri,Bro\\ii), is devoid of astringency,and has a bland, 

 sweetish taste. The pith of both tree ferns were formerly eaten in a 

 lialf roasted state by the Aborigines, but that from the Alsophila was 

 preferred. Their maxim was, that the pith of the Cibotium must be 

 eaten along with the flesh of kangaroo, Ike, while that from the 

 Alsophila was considered so good that it might be partaken of alone. 



Mr. Milligan stated that, in crossing from Oatlands to Swan Port, he 

 had observed highly inclined beds of spiriferous and crinoidal Limestone 



