122 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
thinking that the ever-recurring .desire to recast the constitution 
ot the University on lines which vary in. every successive year is 
greatly to be deprecated, as indicating an empiricism alike unusual 
and unbecoming in the governing body of a University. The pre- 
sent B.A. degree of the New Zealand University has in the last 
ten years succeeded in attaining to a recognised value both in the 
colony and at home, and it would be unwise on the part of the 
Senate to apply the sponge to its present regulations in the view 
of starting afresh, even if the existing curriculum were as inferior 
as it seems to us to be superior to the one by which it is proposed 
to displace it. 
GENERAL -NOTES. 
————-———_. 
AUCKLAND INSTITUTE AND MusEuM.—The Annual Re- 
port of this Institution for 1883-84, recently published, shows that 
good work is being done in our southern Naples. Great credit 
is due to those who have guided the destinies of the Auckland 
Institute since its origin, in that without any endowments or 
government grants they have succeeded in acquiring landed 
property, a museum building in which to exhibit and store their 
collections, and a remarkably good little library. The valuable 
bequest made by the late Mr. Edward Costley of one-seventh 
of his property, and which is estimated to be worth over £10,000, 
together with an endowment of land granted lately by the Govern- 
ment, will soon put the Council in the possession of ample funds 
for carrying on their work. The list of papers read at last 
season’s meetings shows that the members take a considerable 
amount of interest in scientific work. Many of these papers are 
valuable additions to our knowledge of the natural history of the 
colony. Useful features in the report are the list of periodicals 
which are for circulation among the members, and the list of 
additions to the library.— Ep. 
UNIVERSITY OF NEW ZEALAND—HONOURS IN SCIENCE.— 
The thesis sent in by Mr. A. Purdie, M.A., at the examinations 
of November last, and which gained first-class honours, was a 
remarkably able one. The Examiner in Natural Science remarks 
on Mr. Purdie’s work :—“ Deserves the highest honours. Research 
paper most admirable.” The subject chosen for the original 
thesis was the anatomy of certain mussels commonly found on 
our coasts (viz., IZytilus latus, M. edulis, and M. magellanicus) 
and the work seems to have been done in a most thorough and 
conscientious manner. As the paper will probably be published 
in the Trans. of the N.Z. Institute, we shall shortly give a sum- 
mary of the chief points in it—ED. 
ACAENA HUTTONII, BROwN.—Under the above name a sup- 
posed new native plant from the Upper Ashburton was described 
