law. ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 
natural crossing was effected. Types could thus be selected, 
which, if grown so that crossing with other types could be 
prevented, would remain remarkably true to type. Con- 
siderable scope was therefore given to the plant breeder 
in improving Sorghums by a process of selection. 
Mr. DALTON contributed notes and exhibits on two widely 
distributed plants which had certain economic features.. 
These were Asclepias physocarpus, a weed introduced 
from South Africa, and Alpinia ccerulea. The former had 
a fibre of great tensile strength, with flowering buds filled 
with a cottony substance. Mr. R. T. BAKER reported that 
the fibre was superior to that of jute, in having a breaking 
strain of 28°98 kgs. per sq. mm. as against 23°86 kgs. per 
sq. mm. for that of jute, and the preliminary testing of 
this fibre showed promising results. 
Alpinia coerulea was closely related to our ginger of 
commerce, and still more closely related to Alpinia nutans, 
from which Galangal, a medicinal soporific, was obtained. 
Mr. H. W. HaMILToN delivered a lecture on “‘ Birds of 
the Farm,”’ illustrated with a fine series of lantern slides 
depicting the habits of the birds, and, in many cases, their 
protective colouration. The lecturer said that birds could 
be divided into three groups according to their environment, 
viz. (1) birds of the field; (2) birds of the water; and (3) birds 
of the air. The most important birds from the farmer’s 
point of view were the insectivorous birds, including the 
willie-wagtails, various robins, blue wrens, peewee, magpie,. 
jack y-winter, ibis, jackass and curlew. Amongst the insects 
destroyed by these birds were codlin moth, blowfly, cut- 
worms, grasshoppers and various scale insects. Investig-. 
ations carried out in a natural rookery of Ibises, in the 
Riverina district, showed the presence. of 240,000 ibises,. 
and on examining a few specimens, 2,000 immature grass- 
hoppers were found, on an average, in each bird’s stomach. 
