Proceedings of the Royal Society for the month of October, 1881

The usual monthly evening meeting of the Society was held at the Museum on Monday, the 10th of October; His Honor Mr. Justice Dobson, V.P. , in the chair. Mr. John Hamilton, who had previously been nominated by the Council, was balloted for, and declared duly elected as a Fellow of the Society. The attention of the meeting was called to a donation of books, from the library of the late Dr. E. S. Hall, received from the representatives of that gentleman, and comprisiug about 130 bound volumes, together with a large number of official blue books, reports, pamphlets, etc. A paper by Mr. S. H. Wintle on "The Scamander Goldfield" was read in the absence of the author, by Mr. Stephens. The Chairman announced the discovery, on the West Coast, of a fern, new to the flora of Tasmania, in reference to which he read the following extract from a letter, received by him from Baron von Mueller:—"The fern of which you sent a small fragment is Aspidium hispidum of Swartz. As you rightly surmised it is new for Tasmania, though it does not show itself now unexpectedly, inasmuch as this fern has been found in two places of the colony of Victoria. For nearly half a century this Aspidium had not been noticed outside of New Zealand, but it has in later years also been gathered in Mauritius.