NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 497 



bably to protect themselves from the gum that the larvae 

 construct such solid cocoons in which to pupate. 



Mr. Maiden exhibited another sample of the fibre of the 

 marine plant, Posidonia autralis, forwarded to him by Mr. W. 

 Gill, Conservator of Forests, Adelaide (20-viii.-06), with the 

 following note : — " It has been found in several places on our 

 •coast and seems abundant in the sea; so much so that it often 

 clogs the machinery of the dredge working at the Outer Harbour 

 (near Port Adelaide). It seems likely to be of value as a fibre- 

 yielder and has aroused some interest, but no definite information 

 has yet been obtained. Our Surveyor-General inquires from me 

 about it." 



Mr. W. M. Carne sent, for exhibition, portions of fresh branches 

 of a four-year-old Aleppo Pine (Pinus Halepensis Miller) now 

 flowering at Richmond, which afforded an interesting example of 

 heterogamy, or an arrangement of the sexual organs different 

 from that which habitually obtains. The upper branches of the 

 tree were bearing normal isolated cones, but in all the examples 

 from the lower branches which were exhibited, the female 

 sporophylls (cones) were growing at the summits of the male 

 sporophylls (amenta). [Similar cases in other Conifers are men- 

 tioned in Maxwell T. Masters' "Vegetable Teratology," p. 191]. 



Dr. Petrie offered some remarks on the occurrence of strych- 

 nine in the bark and wood of one of the Queensland species of 

 Strychnos (S. psilosperma F.v.M.). 



Mr. Fletcher stated that he had received a letter from Miss 

 Lodder dissenting from the explanation of the occurrence of 

 small fishes (Galaxias sp.) in damp earth at Strahan, Tasmania, 

 put forward at last Meeting. In Miss Lodder's opinion the 

 fishes were not simply sestivating in ground which represented 

 the bed of a water hole or swamp which had dried up, as they 

 were found in a grass (tussocky) paddock, probably swampy in 

 the rainy season. Mr. T. S. Hall, M.A., Melbourne University, 

 had also kindly written, calling attention to his note on a similar 



