52 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" the anthers first (protrandrous), or the stigma first (proterogynous)." 

 We shall be pleased to find that Mr. Kirk has not overlooked this 

 very interesting group of characters, which offer special attraction to 

 observers, and might lead many to take an interest in elucidating 

 questions of this kind without having to acquire any profound 

 knowledge of Botany. Mr. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S., has published 

 an important paper on the subject, and additional observations have 

 been made since it appeared, both by him and by other botanical 

 workers. The results of these observations should, if possible, be 

 incorporated in the forthcoming work. 



We wish Mr. Kirk a continuance of good health to carry through 

 this important work, and substantial support from students of science 

 and the Government of the colony. 



SOME NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE TRAP-DOOR 

 SPIDER {Nemesia gilliesii*) AT LYTTELTON. 



BY ROBT. M. LAING, B.Sc. 



This spider seems to be very much more widely distributed, than 

 was at first presumed. It has been found in Auckland and Nelson ; 

 but I am not aware that it has been hitherto described from Canter- 

 bury. Probably a closer search will show that it is common on hills 

 and downs throughout the colony. 



At Lyttelton it first came under my notice on a bank in a 

 garden beneath some overhanging fruit trees. The ground in that 

 situation must have been overturned at least several times during 

 the last twenty years ; but the locality seemed to suit the spider for 

 I have counted there as many as seventeen trap doors in a square foot 

 of ground under a gooseberry tree. However it is also common on 

 the hills everywhere about the town from sea level up to a height of 

 at least six or seven hundred feet. I have also obtained specimens 

 from the neighbourhood of Sumner, Dyer's Pass, and the Bridle-path ; 

 and it will undoubtedly be met with elsewhere on the hills. The 

 only place on the plains where I have found it is in the Heathcote 

 Valley ; but even there it was within a hundred yards of the hills, on 

 the side of a dry ditch. 



Unfortunately I have not been able to study the habits of the 

 animal so closely as I should have liked to have done ; but there are 

 a few points, that I have noted, which may be of interest ; and a few 

 others in which I differ from the late Mr. Gillies, in his very full and 

 able papert upon the subject. 



Mr. Gillies states that he only once found them on the southern 

 or shady side of a slope. "In all other situations," he says, "where I 

 have observed them, the nests are always on northern or sunny slopes 

 of greater or less steepness, never in stony or rocky ground, and never 



* I have to thank Mr. P. Goyen, Inspector of Schools, for the identification of my 



specimens, 

 t " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," Vol. VIII., p. 222. 



