THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. Ill 



even better. The cover, smeared with a trace of gelatine, is 

 placed in a convenient position, and the diatoms one by one are 

 dropped upon it, having been selected by the aid of the micro- 

 scope and inch objective. After being breathed upon, they may 

 be arranged according to taste under a hand lens or simple 

 microscope, the principal difficulty to surmount being the 

 reverse movement of the bristle as seen under the instrument — a 

 difficulty easily overcome by a little practice, or perhaps better 

 still, by the use of an erector eyepiece. When finally arranged 

 the slide may be mounted and finished after the manner directed 

 for spread slides. 



In conclusion, it only remains for me to say that I have 

 endeavoured, as concisely and clearly as I could, to give you an 

 outline of some of the problems yet unsolved in connection with 

 one of the lowest, but by no means the least interesting, forms of 

 life with which the microscope has made us acquainted, together 

 with such information from my own limited experience as may, I 

 trust, be of some little advantage should any of you feel disposed 

 to give any further attention to the matter. 



BRIEF NOTES ON SOME NEW PAPUAN PLANTS. 

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



Already towards the end of last year I described for the tenth 

 part of the " Papuan Plants " several remarkable novelties, but as 

 more urgent direct official obligations caused the completion of 

 the mentioned publication to be postponed, it is deemed desirable 

 to offer preliminary succinct notes in the Victorian Naturalist on 

 some of the new plants elucidated. 



Antholoma Tieghemi. 



It came from Mount Yule ; the leaves are almost ovate or 

 somewhat lanceolar, narrowly acuminated and distantly denticu- 

 lated ; the longer setule of the anthers and the three-celled 

 ovulary separate this species also from the New Caledonian 

 A. montanum. 



Sloanea Forbesii. 



This was found at Sogere, and comes near S. tomentosa and 

 8. sterculiacea ; the leaves are ovate or verge into a roundish 

 form, soon glabrescent above, but puberulous beneath ; the sepals 

 are lanceolar and on both sides velvety ; the petals are somewhat 

 longer and also velutinous ; the stamens number from 25 to 30, 

 are beset with minute hairlets throughout ; the anther-cells are 

 scarcely longer than the filaments, the terminating setule is hardly 

 shorter ; the pistil except the summit of the style is velutinous. 



