56 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



laying twenty eggs consecutively. In this case the punctures 

 would make a line about three-quarters of an inch long. 



The eggs, when first laid, are a cloudy yellow, some being 

 milky white ; they soon change to a darker colour, being almost 

 black for a few days before the yonng emerge. Those observed 

 by me took thirty-four days to hatch. No doubt the weather 

 would retard the hatching if cold, and hasten it if genial. The 

 eggs increase in size for the first few days. For this I can 

 give no reason unless they absorb the sweet sap found between 

 the wood and bark — this might take place, and so provide 

 the developing insect with a portion of food. I can see no 

 cause why the eggs should not receive benefit from being 

 surrounded by the sweet juice which forms their only food when 

 hatched. No doubt the eggs find great protection from being 

 buried under the bark, but that they must and do benefit in 

 some other way I am almost certain. Out of a "clutch of 

 hoppers' eggs" I reared a number of minute ichneumons — more, in 

 fact, than there were eggs — so some of these minute eggs must 

 have held two or more parasites, which are so small as to be 

 scarcely visible to the naked eye. Drawings of the above 

 ichneumon's life-history were exhibited by me at a meeting of this 

 Club held on 13th June, 1887. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AUSTRALIAN PLANTS, WITH 

 OCCASIONAL OTHER ANNOTATIONS ; 



By Baron von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M. & Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 



(Continued.) 

 Trackymene Maxwelli. 



Shrubby; branchlets minutely puberulous ; leaves copious, 

 rigid, linear, rather blunt, flat or somewhat channelled, slightly 

 scabrous, all lobeless ; umbels compound, conspicuously pedun- 

 culated ; involucral bracts quite leaf-like, as many as secondary 

 peduncles and often of about half their length ; umbellets few, 

 containing several flowers; involucellar bracts broadish-linear,. 

 stiff, less than half the length of the pedicels ; denticules of the 

 calyx rather conspicuous ; petals of rather firm texture, somewhat 

 dark-coloured, oval, at the base almost truncated, at the inner 

 side traversed by a vertical narrow membranule; anther-cells 

 ellipsoid ; fruits much compressed, as broad as their length, 

 broadest downward with a slight basal intrusion, scantily reticular- 

 rough, the linear prominence between the marginal and commis- 

 sural narrow linings faint ; carpophore persistent, cleft at the 

 summit only. 



In Eucalyptus-scrubs near the north-side of the Stirling's 

 Ranges ; George Maxwell. 



A shrub of about 3 feet in height. 



