HARDWl CKE ' S S CIENCE - G O SSIF. 



should not be selected or arranged (all arrangements 

 are atrocious), but a fair group drawn in position as 

 ihey happen to be found. Polycistina, as an opaque 

 object, with side speculum, under two-thirds is a most 

 beautiful subject. In using the speculum, the gas 

 llame should be as close as possible to the stage, and 

 on the same level ; a small plane convex condenser, 

 on a separate stand intervening, throws the light 

 on the speculum, which can then be manipulated, 

 until the best effect is obtained. Eggs of insects, 

 by side lights, are most beautiful. The power should 

 exhibit them as nearly filling the field background, 

 and accessories should be painted to throw them 

 forward. Sections of spines of echinida are seen 

 to advantage with parabolic illumination. Too much 

 care cannot be bestowed on the drawing, before it is 

 touched with colour. Other beautiful subjects are 

 the marine algse, with their pyriform spores. The 

 sori and indusia of ferns— Marattia in particular, 

 showing a series of pods, on a delicate green frond, 

 with inch objective and side-light, is magnificent in 

 colour and solidity. The same may be said of the 

 polypidoms of zoophytes, peristomes of mosses, 

 anthers and pollen of flowers. Rotifera and polyzoa 

 may be rapidly and effectively drawn on dull black 

 paper with opaque colours. Many injected prepiara- 

 tions can only be copied in the same way. The pig- 

 ments should be mixed with flake white and cum, 

 which forms an admirable medium for drawings of 

 this description. Heads of spiders, as a specimen, 

 Epeira cornea, showing the eyes, and many parts of 

 insects, as opaque objects under an inch objective 

 and side light, are worthy the highest artistic efforts. 

 A combination of illumination may be employed 

 with much success. That most common insect, Tingis, 

 with its perforated elytra and lace-like appendages, 

 can only be displayed, if mounted as a transparent 

 object, by light from below, with the dark ground 

 illuminated; and from above, with the side speculum, 

 tongues of mollusca, and many semi-transparent 

 preparations, should have simultaneous lighting in 

 the same way. 



The colours should be dry cakes rubbed down as 

 required. Moist colours in tins soon become con- 

 taminated. The first importance in this work is to keep 

 the palette pure ; everything should be of the first 

 quality. Pale cadmium, cobalt, Payne's grey, and 

 Hooker's green No. I and 2 are indispensable. The 

 Indian ink should be of superlative excellence ; its 

 quality varies, from six to eight shillings for a very 

 small stick, to a shilling for one ten times the size. In 

 pursuing microscopic painting it is essential to be 

 as careful and tender of your materials as old Hunt 

 must have been in his wonderful transcripts of 

 flowers and birds'-nests. All your colours should be 

 prepared, and your tints mixed (to use the words of 

 Opie) with brains. 



E. T. D. 

 Crouch End, 



THE KANGAROO. 

 By W. T. Greene, M.A., M.D., &c. 



T N a country that still continues to be the home of 

 -L a peculiar type of animal and vegetable life, 

 which, during that period of the world's history 

 known to geologists as the Oolitic age, was common 

 to the entire globe, but has long since been else- 

 where superseded by new forms, we may naturally 

 expect to find much that will attract and interest a 

 thoughtful mind j and among the wonders of Austra- 

 lia—for it is to that paradoxical country I allude- 

 there is scarcely to be found a more fascinating 

 subject of study for a lover of nature and natural 

 history, than the curious group of animals known 

 by their En^dish, or rather Australian name of 

 kangaroo. 



The family of the Macropidae, or, more correctly 

 speaking, Macropinas, as several species included 

 under the former designation are not properly 

 kangaroos, consists of several genera, subdivided into 

 numerous species (between thirty and forty in all), at 

 present exclusively confined to the continent of 

 Australia and a few of the islands, including Tas- 

 mania, immediately adjoining ; although, as the 

 fossils discovered in various parts of the world 

 abundantly testify, they formerly enjoyed a much 

 more extensive range. 



Captain Cook and Dr., afterwards Sir Joseph, 

 Banks, were the first who brought to Europe any- 

 thing like a correct account of "the wonderful 

 nondescript animal of New Holland," as they termed 

 the Tasmanian kangaroo. 



It is no wonder that the king of the Marsupials 

 should have surprised Cook and his companions, for 

 he is really a most extraordinary creature, and 

 requires to be seen (seen that is, in his native woods) 

 in order to be appreciated ; for the crawling, 

 slouching gait of the poor captives in Europe conveys ^ 

 but a slight idea, indeed, of the free and bird-like 

 movements of the kangaroo at home ; whether 

 flying before his enemies down the sideling of a hill, 

 and clearing, in his course, logs and bushes many 

 feet in height, or proceeding, more leisurely, across 

 some grassy plain to his favourite watering-place or 

 camping-ground. 



Cook's description is as follows : — 

 "In form it is most like a jerboa, which it also 

 resembles in its motions, but it greatly differs in size, 

 the jerboa not being larger than a common rat, and 

 this animal, when full grown, being as big as a 

 sheep ; this individual (the one shot by Mr. Gore) 

 was a young one, much under its full growth, 

 weighing only 38 lbs. The head, neck and shoulders, 

 are very small in proportion to the other parts of the 

 body, which is thick near the posterior parts, and 

 tapering towards the head ; the forelegs of this 

 individual were only four inches long, and the hind 



B 2 



