XIO 
The Australasian Scientific Magazine. 
[Oct. i, 1885. 
Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria. 
The monthly meeting of the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria was held 
at the Royal Society’s Hall, on Monday evening, 14th of September. The 
President, the Rev. J. J. Halley, occupied the chair, and about seventy-five 
members and visitors were present. 
A letter was read from Ur. J. E. Taylor, F.G.S., thanking the club for 
his election as an honorary member. 
The Honorary Librarian acknowledged donations to the library of 
“Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 1884,” and 
“ Proceedings of Smithsonian Institution, United States of America, for 
1882.” 
The Honorary Secretary read an account by Mr. C. French, F.L.S., of 
the excursion to Cheltenham on the previous Saturday. The botanists of 
the party were well occupied on the trip, as about seventy-five species of 
plants were noted in bloom. 
The following ladies and gentlemen were elected members of the Club: — 
Miss Milne, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. William Page, Messrs. W. Page, Joseph 
Bryant, and E. H. Hennell ; whilst several were nominated for member- 
ship. 
Papers for future meetings were promised by Dr. Dobson, Messrs. O. A. 
Sayce, A. W. Coles, H. T. Tisdall, F.L.S., and FI. Watts. 
The papers read comprised the following: — 1. By Mr. H. Watts, on 
“ Staining Vegetable Tissues for the Microscope.” 2. By the Rev. Dr. 
Wools, F. L.S. (honorary member), entitled “Sanitary Properties of Euca- 
lyptus.” The writer recommended eight species of eucalyptus which were 
likely to prove useful where, on account ol climate or geologic circum- 
stances, E. globulus could not be grown. 3. By Mr. A. W. Howitt, F.G.S. 
(honorary member), on “Notes on a Basalt Vitrophyr from River Tangil 
Valley, Gippsland.” This was on a basalt vitrophyr, or glassy basalt, from 
a volcanic formation, which had flowed over the bed of an ancient river, 
fusing the gravel comprising the bed into a solid quartzoze rock, locally 
termed cement. Specimens of the rocks were exhibited, and also sections 
under the misroscope. 4. By Mr. F. Reader, “ Notes on some Hitherto 
Unrecorded Victorian Fungi,” being a record of the species collected by 
the writer in Studley Park, and elsewhere near Melbourne. 
Baron F. von Mueller forwarded, as also applying to this colony, an 
extract from the Gardener's Chronicle in which attention was called to the 
wholesale destruction of native plants in England, and recommending 
botanists and members of field clubs to discountenance wholesale sales of 
native plants, and the removal of plants for cultivation without special 
objects. 
Mr. C. A Top]), M.A., read a note of a curious growth of fungi found 
by Mr. Tisdall in tire Long Tunnel mine, Walhalla, 800 feet below the 
surface. 
The principal exhibits of the evening were by the Rev. W. Alexander, 
T22 specimens of woods ; by Mr. F. G. A. Barnard, four species of native 
orchids in bloom, grown by exhibitor ; by Mr. A. Coles, pheasants from 
Samoa, woodcock, and Canadian quail ; by Mr. J. E. Dixon, rare Victorian 
beetle (Natalis titana)', by Miss F. M. Campbell, 100 Species of Aus- 
tralian lichens; by Mr. T. A. Forbes-Leith, a rare parrakeet from New 
Guinea, smallest species but one known; by Mr. C. French, F.L.S., 
