SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 151 



Mr. M. F. Woodward exhibited a very young example of the Spiny 

 Ant-eater, Echidna aculeata, taken from the mammary pouch of the parent 

 at Newcastle, Western Australia, by Mr. H. B. Woodward, Curator of the 

 Perth Museum. It was intermediate in size between the two stages 

 described by Prof. Parker, but showed no trace of the calcaneal spur 

 characteristic of the male, nor any trace of the mammary pouch peculiar to 

 the female. He called attention to the flattened and beak-like character 

 of the snout, and the vestiges of the " egg-breaker," and to the disposition 

 of the spine papillae. For the purpose of comparison, Mr. Woodward 

 exhibited also the heads of Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, and a male and 

 female mammary fcetus of Perameles. 



A paper was read by Mr. C. H. Wright, " On the genus Stemona, Lour.," 

 one of the few monocotyledonous genera whose flowers are constructed 

 on a tetramerous type, and remarkable for the diversity of its vegetative 

 characters, while its floral structure varies within comparatively narrow 

 limits. In habit the plants of this genus are generally climbers, but 

 S. sessilifolia, Miq., and S. erecta, C. H. Wright, are exceptions. Of the 

 twelve species enumerated by Mr. Wright as concentrated in Eastern Asia, 

 two of them extend to North Australia. 



Lieut.-Col. C. T. Bingham, in a paper on some Exotic Fossorial 

 Hymenoptera in the British Museum (communicated on his behalf by 

 Mr. W. F. Kirby), enumerated thirty-four species, of which no fewer than 

 thirty were previously undescribed. The discovery of many of them was 

 due to the researches of the author, who had spent twelve years collecting 

 in Sikhim, Burma, and Tenasserim. In the arrangement of the Pompilidce, 

 a confessedly difficult group of Fossorea, he had adopted the classification 

 proposed by Prof. Kohl of Vienna, but he was of opinion that a thoroughly 

 satisfactory classification had yet to be devised. A new genus, Paramenia, 

 was proposed for an insect, described originally from Borneo, which he 

 had found also in Burma and Tenasserim, possessing the characters of both 

 Agenia and Macromeris, resembling the former in neuration and in habits, 

 and the latter in the conspicuous development of the coxae and femora, 

 especially in the male. 



The President then gave a descriptive account of the Khasia Hills from 

 personal experience, dwelling on their geological formation, the extraordinary 

 rainfall of the district (120 inches in five days), and the chief characteristic 

 features of the flora and fauna. His remarks were illustrated by a number 

 of lantern-slides, several of which had been prepared from photographs 

 taken by himself, and others from sketches made by Sir Joseph Hooker. 

 Some additional remarks were made by Col. Sir Henry Collett, K.C.B., 

 from experience gained during two years' residence while commanding the 

 British forces in that part of India. 



