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

The monthly evening meeting of the Society was held on Monday, the 12th September; His Excellency Sir John Henry Lefroy, K.C.M.G. (the President), in the chair.
Messrs. William Crosby, jun., of Hobart, and S. H. Wintle, F.L.S., of George's Bay, who had previously been nominated by the Council, were balloted for, and declared duly elected as Fellows of the Society.
From His Excellency the Governor, a curiously perforated Rock Specimen from Table Cape was presented to the Society.
In reference to this presentation, His Excellency remarked, "I place before the Society two specimens of a compact fine grained sandstone from the beach at Table Cape, which have interested me by their curious condition of perforation, which I have attributed to the action of dropping water. These pieces are broken off the dividing walls of an assemblage of shallow, more or less circular basins, which occurs below high water-mark, and covers some hundreds of square feet. The perforations in their original position are vertical. The basins are quite smooth within unless where there is a mound of the same character in the centre, and they remind me of what we always find on the floor of caves where there is much dropping of water charged with carbonate of lime. Pools form on the floor. The water is sent off in circles from the centres of drip. The lime is deposited where it meets a check, and there ridges are built up. His Excellency the President read a paper "On the Magnetic Variation at Hobart, and its change in amount since last determined." Mr. Stephens read "Notes on the proposal for establishing a 'Class Ground' for typical plants, in the Society's Gardens." Further discussion ensued, eliciting a diversity of opinion on the adoption of the proposal, in which His Excellency, Mr. Swan, and others, took part. It was not advisable to attempt to hurry anything of this kind, and as the matter was now placed on record, it would no doubt receive consideration.