Proceedings. 183 



and copiously illustrated witli coloui-ed plates of motlis, butterflies, and caterpillars, 

 &c., and the plants on which they are found. 



From the Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company, — Design and Plan of the 

 City of Hohart Steamer. 



To the Museum, from Peter Fraser, Esq., M.L.C. — A specimen of Land Eail, 

 G-allinula crex, shot by him in Scotland, and stuffed and mounted by himself. 



From Mr. L'Estrange, a small collection of Sea Shells picked up by himself at 

 Singapore, Penang, Sydney, and other places. 



From Mr. Mac Naughtan, a large specimen of the Black Bitiuninous Schist, 

 kno^Ti as the Torbaiie Hill Mineral. Also a specimen of the combustible Schist 

 from the Mersey River, exhibiting an imperfect impression on one side of a 

 Bivalve Shell. 



From Mr. Duncan Macpherson, a section of Timber from a large Gum Tree, 

 displaying a solid centre of an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, closely 

 embraced by the exterior concentric circles of ligneous matter, but standing out 

 clearly and distinctly apart, with thick short branches projecting irregularly into 

 the surroundnig wood, conveying the idea of a tree within a tree. Also a frag- 

 ment of Sand Stone from Sandy Bay, exhibiting in its substance numerous 

 mammillary forms, cemented with ferruginous matter. 



From Captain Smith, of the Coal Mines, Tasman's Peninsula, a collection of 

 Ova-cells of the large Fasciolaria of these shores, each of which on being opened 

 yield a number of minute shells of a white colour. 



From Dr. Moore, of New Norfolk, specimens of Steatite fi-om crevices in 

 Greenstone obtained in that neighbom-hood. 



From Mr. J. L. Mac Laine specunens of Sandstone believed to belong to the car- 

 boniferous series, and represented to have been obtained in the immediate vicinity 

 of coal upon the left bank of the Huon River, near Surveyor's Beach. 



The attention of the meeting was called to a bunch of raspberries in various 

 stages of advancement, from blossom to perfectly ripened fruit, sent to the meeting 

 by Sir Henry Atkinson, fi'om whose garden, at the upper end of Macquarie-street, 

 they were taken. A note from Mr. H. HuU on the extreme mildness of the 

 present winter, as exemplified by the ripening of these and other fruits, was read. 



A conununication from Mr. H. HuU was also read on a paragraph in the 

 writings of Christian Franc. Paulinus, in the 9th century, wherein he states that 

 certain trees in the Island Sombrero, in the East Indies, have large worms 

 attached under-ground in place of roots, &c., and which Mr. HuU supposes to 

 indicate the knowledge in that early period of some species of Sphefia, or plant- 

 caterpiUar hke that of New Zealand, or of Franklin's Village, Van Diemen's 

 Land. 



A letter was read from Mr. J. Hobbs, of H. M. Customs, M elbom-ne, addressed 

 to Dr. Bedford, of this city, drawing attention to an article in the United Service 

 Journal u.pon the character and virtues of a plant known by the name of Guaco 

 and said to be indigenous in the Caraocas, South America, and in some of the 



