MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 535 
tified, from the Mersey coal measures, and shortly afterwards a fine 
collection from the same beds was presented by Mr. Hainsworth, of 
Latrobe. At the time of the Calcutta Exhibition I sent a box of speci- 
mens from the same locality, together with a few from the Jerusalem 
basin, to Dr. Feistmantel, Palcontologist of the Geological Survey of 
India, who is thoroughly conversant with the flora of all the Australian 
coalfields, and better able than any other living authority to settle 
questions concerning the relative age and affinities of the coal measures 
of Tasmania. In the correspondence which has followed, Dr. Feist- 
mantel expressed his readiness to determine for us the species of our 
coal plants, and thus facilitate comparisons and conclusions which at 
present are necessarily made very much in the dark. In a letter 
received by the last mail he says :—“ I don’t want to publish anything 
about the subject before I have got again your opinion avout the 
position of the Mersey beds in reference to the marine fossils. I intend, 
then, to publish figures and descriptions of the fossils you have sent: for 
this purpose I would be much obliged to you for any other fossils from 
the coal measures of Tasmania which you might be able to communicate 
to me, so that my memoir on the plant fossils of Tasmania might be 
more complete. When I wrote my first notices on the Australian fossil 
flora I had no sufficient information about the occurrence of Glossopteris 
in Tasmania.” It is a long time since I have had any leisure to devote 
to the collection of geological specimens, and those which I possess fram 
the southern and eastern coal measures are mostly in a fragmentary 
condition, having been obtained hurriedly from roadside cuttings, or 
the debris of coal workings, while traversing the country on horseback. 
I am, however, able to supply Dr. Feistmantel with a good collection 
from the Mersey basin, and shatl be glad to do any thing in my power 
to send him one representing the other coal formations in Tasmania. 
Ifany of the Fellows of the Royal Society are willing to help in this 
direction, and will send specimens to the Museum, or furnish the names 
of local collectors from whom they can be procured, they will materially 
aid in the accomplishment of an important work, which cannot be 
performed except by the transmission of a good representative collection 
to a competent authority. 
Hobart, July 14th. 1885.—Mr. James Barnard, Vice-President, in 
the chair. 
New Fellows.—Dr. A. B. Crowther, and Mr. R. R. Rex. 
Papers.—(1) “On Impurities of Water in relation to Typhoid 
Fever,” by Mr. W. F. Ward, A.R.S.M. 
(2) “Notes on Jean Julien Houten de la Billardiere,” by Baron 
F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G. Jean Julien Houton de la Hillardiere was 
born in Alengon (Orne), 28th October, 1755, and died in Paris, 8th 
January, 1834. He graduated in Medicine in the University of 
Montpellier, but subsequently devoted his studies almost exclusively to 
botany. For this purpose he traversed first the European Alps, and 
then travelled through some portion of Britain. In 1786 and 1788 he 
was sent by Louis “XVL on a botanic exploration of Syria, which 
brought him also to Lebanon. The literary result of this journey was 
his work “‘Icones plantarum Syriz rariores,” the first part of which 
appeared in 1791. When in 1792 the first search expedition was sent 
