14S Miscellaneous. 



which the German naturalist has fallen on the subject of the organi- 

 zation of the spores. M. Unger regards them as clothed with a 

 ciliated membrane, similar to that which he was the first to observe 

 on the spores of the Vaucheria. I am convinced, on the contrary, 

 by repeated observations, that they are furnished with two long cilia 

 inserted on the rostrum ; an analogous arrangement to that which I 

 have figured in the spores of the Conferva glomerata and crispata*. 



During the excursion which I made with M. Decaisne on the coasts 

 of the British Channel, we had frequent opportunity of studying the 

 spores of Ectocarpus siliculosus, of Ulva lactuca, and of Enteromor- 

 pha compressa. In the Ectocarpus we found two cilia inserted on 

 a colourless rostrum. In Ulva and Enter omorpha the spores have 

 four ciha. I found this same number in soft-water Algae, the Con- 

 ferva zonata, whose spores are similar to those of the Chcetophora and 

 Draparnauldia. They present a very visible red point, which I have 

 even perceived sometimes on spores still enclosed in the tube of the 

 plant. I may remark that the Conferva zonata is, moreover, a very 

 distinct Alga from the true Conferva. These latter appear to me to 

 form a clearly limited genus, all the species of which have the tube 

 finely striped with longitudinal striae, for instance Conferva glomerata^ 

 crispata, rupestris, &c. These longitudinal striae are themselves in- 

 tersected by extremely fine transversal striae, which appear to me 

 to have hitherto escaped all microscopic observers. — Ann. des Sci. 

 Nat., Mai 1845. 



On the Extinct Mammals of Australia, with Additional Observations 

 on the genus Dinornis of Netv Zealand. By Prof. Owen. 



In a previous report Prof. Owen had demonstrated the former 

 existence in Australia of two genera of Marsupial animals, rivalling 

 in size the rhinoceros and hippopotamus of the old continent. Since 

 the reading of his first report, Prof. Owen had received three molar 

 teeth belonging to the upper jaw of the Diprotodon ; the crown of 

 each tooth was divided into two principal transverse ridges, like those 

 of the lower jaw, and the enamel presented the wrinkled and punc- 

 tate surface peculiar to the genus. With these was found a large 

 scalpriform incisor, whose bevelled cutting edge showed that it 

 worked upon a similar tooth in the lower jaw. The Diprotodon, 

 therefore, had molars like the kangaroo ; but, instead of the two 

 large incisors in the lower jaw being opposed to six smaller in the 

 upper, as in the kangaroo, it had two large incisors above as well as 

 below, agreeing in form and structure, and relative size, with those 

 of the Wombat. Prof. Owen considered himself justified in conclu- 

 ding that the Diprotodon combined the characters of Phascolomys 

 with those of Macropus, exhibiting both upon a gigantic scale, and 

 constituting one of those links in the chain of being which the course 



• Recherches sur les Orgaiies I^ocomoteurs des Spores des Algues (Ann. 

 des Sc. Nat, 2nd Series, 1843, vol. xix. p. 266. pi. 10.). In that memoir I 

 have erroneously designated the Conferva crispata by the name of C. rivu- 

 laris. 



