400 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr, Fletcher exhibited flowering specimens of Vallisneria 

 spiralis, Linn., and Sym2)hyonema paludosuin, R. Br., collected at 

 Botany on the occasion of the excursion on Saturday last ; in. 

 reference to which Rev. Dr. Woolls, who was one of the party, 

 writes "I cannot find any record of V. spiralis having been found 

 near Sydney, with the exception of a passing notice in Dr. 

 Bennett's Wanderings of a Naturalist, p. 282, where he alludes to 

 the large form found in the Nepean, and then speaks of two 

 smaller species as occurring in the vicinity of Botany swamps. 

 Brown and Sieber are said to have found S. paludosum at Port 

 Jackson, but I think it is rare in the neighbourhood of Sydney." 



Dr. Katz read the following note : — 



"Permit me to touch upon a subject of more than usual interest, 

 namely, that of the nature of the venom of Australian snakes. 

 A number of valuable observations have been made upon the 

 venomous snakes of other countries; such as Asia (India) 

 and America ; but as yet comparatively little exact infor- 

 mation is to hand as to the character of the venom of snakes 

 from Australia. Chiefly at the instigation of the Hon. William 

 Macleay, I have taken up the subject under consideration, 

 and I have already been enabled to experiment on guinea- 

 pigs with the venom of the Brown-banded or Tiger-snake 

 ( Hoplocephalus curtus, Schleg.^. It is not my intention to 

 give here the results of these experiments which are still 

 incomplete, but to point briefly to what it would seem highly 

 desirable to know, from a practical point of view, as well 

 as from a merely scientific one. We may reasonably ask — 

 what is the chemical composition of the virus of Australian 

 venom-snakes, and what are its poisonous principles ? That 

 the efiect of the poison depends on the existence of such 

 chemical compounds, and not on micro-organisms, needs no 



