BY J. J. FLETCHER, M.A., B.SC. 245 



of the nursery referred to below, for example, plants have been 

 brought here from, and sent heuce to, many parts of the world for 

 the last fifty years or more. 



Dr. Ramsay informs me that he remembers their being found 

 under pieces of wood, &c., in the Australian Museum grounds, and 

 at Dobroyde, as far back as 1874. In the Macleay Museum there 

 are specimens of thi.s, and of another possibly introduced species, 

 found by Mr. Masters some years ago in IVEr. Macleay's hothouse. 

 But individuals appear never to have been so conspicuously 

 numerous as they have been during April and May of this year. 



Last February Mr. Masters kindly allowed me to examine a 

 number of specimens of various worms collected, in the course of 

 about six weeks, at one of the Sydney nurseries by Mr. James, in 

 response to a request for worms of any sort. As illustrating the 

 way in which the nurseries become possible foci for the distribution 

 of certain introduced animals, it is worth while recording the 

 contents of the bottle, as follows : four examples of planarians 

 belonging to two indigenous species ; seventeen specimens of 

 introduced planarians belonging to two species, among which were 

 eleven specimens of B. Kewense ; together with a large number 

 of earthworms belonging to three species all introduced. Of 

 one introduced species of planarian, and of two of the intro- 

 duced species of earthworms, the only other examples besides 

 these which I have seen were from the Hon. William Macleay's 

 garden, to which also plants have been brought fi-om many parts 

 of the world. 



As I was working at earthworms at tlie time, the planarians 

 were put aside for further examination, when my attention was 

 again drawn to them by quite unexpectedly finding a very fine 

 specimen of the Bipaliuin crawling on my doorstep on the evening 

 of April 14th. After this I began to kee|) a look out. and subse- 

 <][uently on each of three different occasions within a few feet of the 

 same spot I found another example (I). In the meantime I had 

 begun to notice their slimy tracks, as well as injured or dead 



(1) During the fortnight after the reading of this note I found three other 

 living specimens on diflerent evenings in the same situation. 



