SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL SOCIETIES. 
ee OQ, 
Nores AND EXHIBITS. 
Mr. T. Steel exhibited a portion of the liver of a domestic fowl showing a 
common pin. 1 inch in length embedded in the liver substance. Both*ends of 
the pin projected for several mm., and were enveloped in liver tissue, the head 
and point being distinctly outlined. The pin must have been swallowed and 
then worked its way through the tissues until it became fixed in the position 
found. Mr. Steel mentioned having been shown the crop of a domestic duck 
which was crammed with common pins pickéd up by the bird when running 
about a back verandah where dressmaking was going on. 
Mr. W. W. Froggatt exhibited specimens of the larva of the Cup moth 
(Apoda wylomeli) on a Waratah from Sydney. 
Miss V. Irwin Smith exhibited a female specimen of the common “bag moth” 
(Metura elongata Saunders), and gave an account of its observed method of 
progression up a vertical pane of glass. In climbing it clung to a narrow trans- 
verse bar of silky threads by its forelegs, while it spun a similar bar about half 
an inch higher up, and in two hours spun over 80 rungs and climbed a vertical» 
distance of 4 feet. Hach rung was composed of seven or nine strands, the rung 
always being commenced on the right side and finished on the left. The threads 
are not sticky, but each is glued down securely at both ends by some adhesive 
substance. 
Mr. W. F. Blakely exhibited specimens from the National Herbarium of 
Eupatorium glandulosum H.B. et K. in Noy. Gen. et Sp. (1820) iv., 122, t. 346, 
and Crepis setosa Hall f. in Roem. Arch. i., 2, 1. The first is a native of Mexico, 
and is a garden escape, which appears to be well established in several places in 
the. Port Jackson district, namely—Neutral Bay (J. White); Parramatta River 
near Gladesville bridge; Lane Cove River, Killara; head of salt water, Lane Cove 
River; between Marsfield and Epping (W. F. Blakely). ; 
On the Lane Cove it is firmly established, and vegetates freely amongst the 
native vegetation, the moist loamy banks corresponding to some extent to the 
moist plateaus of its native environment, except that in its native country it 
thrives at an elevation from 5,000 to 8,000 feet, while here it flourishes at sea 
level, and appears to be sufficiently stable to be considered a naturalized alien. 
It is depicted in the Botanical Register t. 1732. N 
Crepis setosa is a native of Europe and Asia Minor, and is now recorded for 
the first time for Australia. Several plants were found growing in a lane off 
-Florence-street, Hornsby (W. F. Blakely). In New Zealand it is classed as a 
roadside weed. For a ready reference to the description, see Hooker’s Students’ 
Flora of the British Isles, p. 228. ‘ ; 
Mr. A. A. Hamilton exhibited a seed of Butia yatay Bece. (Cocos yatay 
Mart.), grown in the Sydney Botanic Gardens by J. H. Camfield, which had 
produced twin seedlings. Worsdell (Prin. of Plant Terato., 1, pl. 9) figures twin 
seedlings in the “ Desert Rod” Hremostachys laciniata, and attributes the dicho- ~ 
_ tomy (p. 94) to fasciation.. Patterson (Journ. of Heredity, x., 350) figures an 
example of polyembryony in the “ Mango,’ Mangifera indica, showing a series of 
seven seedlings arising from a single seed. The occurrence of twin stems in a 
seedling of Acacia juniperina has been noted by Mr. R. H. Cambage (Journ. Roy. 
Soc. N.S.W., xlix., 93). : . 
Mr. Fletcher exhibited a stunted branch of Hucalyptus saligna with a cluster 
of about thirty-five four-pronged female galls of the Coecid, Brachyscelis munita 
Schrader, together with numerous grouped or single male galls. One horn of one 
of the female galls, about 13 inches long, carries a small female gall. 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
At the August meeting, Messrs, R. H. Cambage and H. Selkirk read a paper 
on “ Early Drawings of an Aboriginal Ceremonial Ground.” ‘The rough drawings 
were made by Surveyor-General Oxley in his field-book, at Moreton Bay; in 1824, 
and show the plan of a spot, as Oxley writes, “where the natives meet after a 
war with adverse tribes, to make peace.” This appears to be the first drawing 
showing the lay out of a Ceremonial Ground of ‘this nature in Australia, and 
has remained in obscurity for 96 years. er wnat 
The following members were elected:— ' 
Dr. S. J. Gilbert, Messrs. A: 8. Le Souef,'C. W. Mann, and J. Sulman. 
565. 
