Proceedings for the month of May, 1854

Proceedings of the Monthly Meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania held on the 10th May, 1854, His Excellency Sir W. T. Denison, President, in the chair; The following members were present :—Drs. Agnew, Hall, McCarthy, Smart, Colonel Last, Major Cotton, Captain Hawkins, R. E., Messrs. James Burnett, Francis Butler, W. T. N. Champ, Joseph Hone, Henry Hopkins, D. T. Kilburn, Alexander MacNaughtan, Thomas Moore, George Rolwegan, Chester Eardley- Wilmot. His Excellency then read the following note, dated 2nd February, 1854, from Sir W. J. Hooker. " Sir, The Earl of Clarendon having with great difficulty procured from Morocco perfectly fresh seeds of the Argan-tree (Argania sideroxylon) , and placed a quantity of them at my disposal. A quantity of seeds have been left at the Museum for distribution, and persons desirous of cultivating them, and disposed to furnish a report of their success or otherwise, may obtain a portion on application. Mr. Moore, of New Norfolk, exhibited two of the sewing machines patented by the Lancashire Sewing Machine Company, and sundry fragments of cloth were rapidly stitched together in a neat and substantial fashion in the presence of the members, most of whom closely inspected the mechanism of the automaton, which is calculated to do the work of about twenty ordinary hands