428 Miscellaneous. 



Hab. Open plains, Darling Downs, New South Wales. 



Fur very soft, and both on the upper and under parti of the body 

 of a slate-grey colour next the skin ; general hue of the upper parts 

 of the body ashy grey, much pencilled with black ; on the sides of 

 the body there is but little 6f the black pencilling, and hence the 

 general hue is paler ; and on these parts, as well as on the sides of 

 the head, is a faint yellow tint ; under parts of the body white, very 

 indistinctly suiFused with yellow on the mesial portion of the abdo- 

 men ; between the white of the under parts and the greyish hue of 

 the sides of the body is a narrowish space of an almost uniform pale 

 yellow hue, and the same tint is observable on the outer side of the 

 legs ; feet white, obscurely tinted with pale yellow ; on the upper 

 surface of the head is a mark, narrow on the muzzle, but becoming 

 expanded behind, which is almost entirely black, and immediately 

 around the eyes the hairs are also black ; ears of moderate size, their 

 posterior margin nearly straight, clothed internally with small pale 

 yellowish, and externally with black hairs, excepting on the hinder 

 part, where they are pale ; tail very thick at the base (about 3 j lines 

 in diameter), becoming gradually slender to the apex, and clothed 

 throughout with very minute hairs, between which the scaly skin is 

 visible ; those on its upper part and sides partly black and partly 

 yellow, and on the under surface dirty white. The specimen de- 

 scribed is a male. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Existence of Tetraspores in a genus of Algce, belonging to the 

 Zygnemata. By M. Montagne. 



" Reproductive bodies of two kinds have for a long time been 

 observed in those Algse which are denominated Floridece. Those 

 which constitute the spores are inclosed in variable but distinct con- 

 ceptacula, which are especially remarkable from the place which they 

 occupy in different individuals. The others, nestling in the cortical 

 stratum, or placed in rows in the transformed branches, are at first 

 entire, globose or ellipsoidal, but at maturity separate into four spores, 

 either crucially or horizontally. 



** Messrs. Cronan of Brest, during the course of the last year only, 

 observed in the spores of certain Fucacece, and amongst other species 

 Fucus nodosus, where they had never been before ascertained to be 

 otherwise than simple, that they also at maturity separated into four 

 distinct spores. Dr. J. D. Hooker and Dr. Dickie in Great Britain, 

 and Messrs. Decaisne and Thuret in France, not only confirmed this 

 fact by their own observations, but studied it in some other species. 

 We have then the two first families of the great class of Algae pro- 

 vided with spores divided quaternally. 



•' Amongst the hydrophytes of Algiers there is one of great interest 

 gathered by M. Durieu in the marsh of Ali-Labrack near La Calle. 

 It belongs to the little tribe of Zygnemata distinguished by the co- 

 pulation of the threads. At first it does not seem to differ from 

 other species, but examined under the microscope it exhibits the 



