WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4893, 27 November 1876, Page 2

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

The usual meeting of the above society took place in the • Colonial Museum on Saturday evening last, the President, Dr. Buller, C.M.G., in the chair. The following new members were announced; —Major Willis, R.M., Dr. Skae, Messrs. Geo. Lambert, J. T. Thomson, and James McKenzie. The President invited discussion on Mr. Kirk’s treatise “On Native Grasses,” read at last meeting, but there being no response, he called on Dr. Hector to read the first paper on, the list.

“On Hedges and Hedge Plants,” by J. C. Crawford, F.G.S. In the discussion which followed, Messrs. W. R. E. Brown, J. H. Wallace, Kirk, C. O’Neill, C. C. Graham, Young, Buchanan, McLean, Dr. Hector, and the President, took part. ’ Mr. Brown stated some objections to the use of the common thorn and gorse for fencing purposes ; Mr. Wallace recommended laurustinus ; Dr. Hector refereed to his experiences of various hedge plants in California Mr. Kirk attributed the want of success complained of in Mr. Crawford's paper to the want of proper culture. Mr. O’Neill recommended the cultivation of the pohutukawa, Mr. Graham, the prickly acacia of Australia, and Mr. Buchanan, the common blue gum. Mr. Douglas McLean made some observations on the bitter willow of Australia, recommending its' trial here and Dr. Buller, referring to Mr. Crawford’s remarks on the Osage orange as- a fencing shrub, said he had made the experiment hhnself with very indifferent results. There appeared to be considerable diversity of opinion on the subject treated of in the paper. • . / The next paper was by Mr. Rous , Marten, F.8.G.5., “On the Comparative:Atmospheric ■Pressure of New Zealand, and Great Britain, considered in reference ■ to Dr. Newman’s theory of physiological deterioration.” , Dr. 1 Hector read a faper by J. Buchanan, P.L.S., “ On Charring Timber as a Protection from Teredo.” Specimens of sound and bored wood taken from old piles were exhibited, in support of the argument advanced by Mr. Buchanan, • that the, charring is an effectual protection against this destructive grub. V In a discussion which followed, much difference of opinion was expressed, and the following members took part in it : —Drs. Hector and Newman, Messrs. Brown, O’Neill, Young, Campbell, Kirk, Martin, J. . T. Thomson, Buchanan, and the President. In the course of this discussion, Mr. Thomson referred to his own experience in Otago, extending over a period of more than twenty years, and gave it as his matured opinion, that charring had no. effect whatever of a presetvative nature. Sound wood,; he .maintained, would resist the ravages of the teredo, whether charred or not; and no amount of charring would save the soft wood or sap from destruction and decay. Dr. Hector read “ Notes on the Antarctic Petrel (PrioceUa antarcticaJ,” his observations being founded on a specimen presented to the Museum by Mr. J. J, Buckrell, as a rare bird shot by him in lat. 46deg. S., long. 118 deg. 9min. E., or about 1000 miles west of Taa-

mania, and in the latitude of Otago. The specimen was exhibited. • Dr. Buller read the titles of three ornithological papers, and stated briefly their nature. Being principally of a technical character, he did not consider it necessary to read them through, especially as the drawings he had prepared in illustration of them were still in the hands of the lithographer. The papers would appear in the next volume of “ Transactions,” when those interested in the subject could peruse them. The papers were :

1. Observations on a supposed new form of Pkalacrocorax, inhabiting Queen- Charlotte’s Sound. (Specimens were exhibited). 2. On a tendency to deformity in the bill of Nestor meridionalis. 3. On the alleged intercrossing of Ocydrornus earli and the domestic fowl. The President, at Mr. Buchanan’s request, called attention to a new plant, Senecis perdicioides, a flowering- branch of which was handed round. This plant, although long known to science, has not been seen since the time of Captain Cook. It was collected by Sir Joseph Banks, at Tolago Bay, during one of Cook’s voyages to New Zealand ; and it has recently been collected on the East Coast by Archdeacon Williams, and brought by him to Wellington. The: branch exhibited was taken from a plant grown by Mr. McNab, of this city, and now coming into flower. . A number of other papers on the list were ordered to stand over, and the meeting adjourned for a fortnight.