OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 17 



abandoned hut where there was an extensive system of troughs by 

 the side of a swamp, they found the troughs one-third full and 

 literally swarming with lap-lap fish about an inch or an inch and a 

 half in length. The troughs had not probably been used for two 

 or three months previously, and they could hardly doubt that they 

 had been filled by the rain for there were no traces of any sheep 

 having been there recently or of any visitors at all. He supposed 

 that the ova of this fish would bear desiccation without perishing 

 and that they had remained in the troughs until hatched by the 

 rain. He had often observed also that when the immense flats 

 of the Mosquito Plains, and the Muddy Creek heaths were inun- 

 dated in winter, that dray tracks or any little indentation of the 

 surface would become a channel along which the water slowly 

 ran. These were always stocked with lap-lap, though in this 

 case of course the ova or fry may have come from the swamps. 

 He had come to the conclusion that the ova of these fishes would 

 bear desiccation without perishing, and that they were often blown 

 about and carried considerable distances by the wind, in dust 

 storms, &c. 



On a new species of Desmophyllum (D. quinarium) and 



a young stage of Ctcloseeis sinensis. 

 By Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, F.L.S., F.G.S., Cor. Memb. 



Linn. Soc. 



Desmophyllum is a genus of Turbinolinas, which is specially 

 distinguished by the presence of an epitheca and the absence of 

 a columella ; the corallum is simple, generally fixed by a large 

 base ; the fosette is very deep, and the septa are very much 

 exserted, and stretch out like huge wings ; the last cycle is more 

 developed than that which precedes, and are often united to their 

 neighbours, of the higher orders, from which they slightly diverge 

 as they approach the centre ; the wall is bare, smooth below, and 

 presents some little crests in the neighbourhood of the calice. 

 The genus was originally established by Ehrenberg for a species 



