HARBWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



mouse-colour ; its length, from the tip of the nose to 

 the extremity of the tail, is eight feet, of which the 

 tail itself measures three, and is proportionably 

 muscular ; the female, as generally happens among 

 the kangaroos, is considerably, ahnost a third, smaller 

 than her mate. This species is confined to the 

 interior and eastern portions of the continent, and is 

 remarkably swift. The adult male occasionally 

 attains a weight of two hundred pounds avoirdupois. 



The great grey kangaroo, although distinguished 

 by the specific term giganteus, is not quite so large 

 as the preceding, but is more generally diffused, its 

 habitat extending from the north of Queensland to 

 the southern extremity of Victoria ; and as far, in a 

 westerly direction, as South Australia ; it is also to be 

 met with in Tasmania, and is probably the animal 

 referred to by Cook, in his account of his voyages, 

 to which reference has been already made. As its 

 name would indicate, this species is of a uniform 

 greyish-brown, passing into a grisly-grey on the 

 under surface ; the face, paws, feet, and the tip of 

 the tail are black. This species, which is often 

 hunted in Tasmania, where it not unfrequently leads 

 the hounds an exciting chase of eighteen or twenty 

 miles, or even more, inhabits low grassy hills, and 

 plains skirted by open forests, to which it retires for 

 shelter from the heat of the sun. 



The bridled kangaroo (AT. franatns] is a native of 

 the southern and central portions of the Australian 

 continent, and is an elegant little species, weighing 

 from ten to fifteen pounds. The general tint of the 

 fur on the upper surface is grey, while the under 

 parts are white ; it owes its specific appellation to 

 two white bands which extend from the occiput 

 backwards over the shoulder on each side, and from 

 the tip of the muzzle to beneath the eye. It inhabits 

 dry mountain ridges entirely destitute of water, and 

 quenches its thirst with the dew that generally falls 

 in such abundance during the night in Australia. 



The nail-tailed kangaroo {M. unguifer) is a very 

 elegant animal, measuring about four feet in length. 

 In this species the tail is terminated by a tuft of long 

 black hair, in the centre of which is placed a thick 

 black nail, very closely resembling in shape and 

 general appearance that of a human finger ! The 

 colour of this animal is a yellowish-buff ; but it seems 

 to be scarce, and little is known, with certainty, as 

 to its habits, or the extent of country in which it is 

 found. {To be continued.) 



LIST OF ASSISTING NATURALISTS. 



\Continued.'\ 



Leicestershire. 

 Leicester.— Mr. H. E. Quilter, 31 Twycross Street, 



Highfield. Geology. 

 Leicester. — Mr. George Robson, 91 Cranbourne 



Street. Phanerogamic Botany and Colcoptera. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE DIATOMACE^. 

 By F. KiTTON, Hon. F.R.M.S. 



SOME few months since we gave a short resume 

 of Ehrenberg's " Infusionsthierchen " (so far as 

 the Diatoms were concerned). In that article we dwelt 

 more particularly upon the arrangement and classifica- 

 tion of those organisms. We now propose to lay before 

 the readers of Science-Gossip a resume of the views 

 of a celebrated naturalist of a somewhat earlier period, 

 in which he gives what may be called a life history of 

 some of these forms. This history was published in a 

 little work (a small square octavo) entitled the 

 " Almanachdes Carlsbad," 1835. This was not, as we 

 understand the term, an almanac containing a 

 calendar, changes of the moon, &c., but partook more 

 of the nature of a literary and scientific annual and 

 contained articles written by various authors. That 

 which we have now to introduce to the reader was 

 written by Mr. Augustus Joseph C. Corda, a well- 

 known naturalist and the author of several works con- 

 nected with the Cryptogamia ; his principal works were 

 " Icones Fungorum, hucusque cognitorum," " Pracht- 

 floraeuropaischer Schimmelbildungen," "Beitrage zur 

 Flora der Vorwelt." He was bom at Reichenberg 

 in Bohemia in iSio, and was made curator of the 

 Zoological section of the museum at Prague in 1834 ; 

 he travelled in Texas in 1847-9, and died at sea in 

 1849, thus dying at the early age of 39, his great con- 

 temporary Ehrenberg surviving him nearly 40 years. 

 The contribution to the above-named work was 

 entitled " Observations sur les animalcules micro- 

 scopiques qu'on trouve aupres des eaux thermales de 

 Carlsbad, par M. A. J. C. Corda de Prague (traduit du 

 manuscrit allemand)." It commences with a short notice 

 of the labours of earlier observers, but to which he 

 very briefly alludes. The forms he describes (Diatoms, 

 Desmids, Oscillarias, and Arthrodias) are unhesi- 

 tatingly referred to the animal kingdom, and this 

 opinion was doubtlessly the cause of his describing 

 the phenomena that he observes as being the result of 

 the action of certain organs which he imagined he 

 saw, particularly the capability of movement ; thus we 

 find the assertion that certain diatomaceous forms were 

 endowed with feet, or what he calls pedal vesicles, 

 and we have no reason to doubt that such asser- 

 tion was made in good faith. That he really did see 

 any protoplasmic extensions is of course highly 

 improbable, although that something analogous to this 

 does take place is the opinion of many diatomists 

 at the present moment. In the " American Monthly 

 Microscopical Journal," April 1881, is a paper by Mr. 

 J. D. Cox, "On the Motion of Diatoms," in which 

 he records some observations he has made on this 

 subject ; he says that he saw a frustule of Nitzschia 

 linearis so wedged in the compressor that one end 

 was free whilst the other was fast. The free end 

 would move vigorously one way or another in the arc 



