178 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



cleistogamous ; they soon open out and offer opportunities to 

 external agencies for the purpose of cross-pollination. 



The manner of growth of this plant is much like other plants 

 that ripen their fruits underground, and their number is not large. 

 Of these the best-known examples are Arachis hypogcea (the 

 well known Pea-nut), Voandzeia subterranea (Bomba Ground-nut 

 or Earth-pea), Morisia hypogcea, Trifolium subterraneum, 

 Cardamine cheiiopodifolia, Linaria cymbaria, Vicia amphicarpa, 

 Phrynium micans, &c., and Geococcus pusillus also should now 

 be placed among these. 



In the case of Viola sepincola, as related by Kerner and Oliver, 

 "the open flowers are adapted to cross-pollination through the 

 agency of bees ; should no cross take place, and no fruits be 

 produced from the open flowers which bloom above the ground, 

 cleistogamous flowers, hidden underground, develop and bring 

 forth a number of fertile seeds, as a result of the autogamy which 

 invariably takes place within their closed envelopes. This plant 

 also may be taken as a type of those plants in which most of the 

 fruits ripen underground." 



Like other plants of this class, Geococcus pusillus has some of 

 the fruits ripening above ground, hence their seeds become 

 adapted to being carried any distance through the agency of 

 animals, or by means of aqueous or aerial currents. 



Hitherto this interesting species has been regarded as 

 synonymous with Sisymbriicm cardaminoides, F. v. M., in a 

 stemless state, but this view must now be relinquished, and the 

 plant looked upon as distinct from that species. 



NOTES ON THE FOSSIL CASTS IN TERTIARY IRON- 

 STONE FROM STAWELL, FIGURED BY M'COY. 



By F. Chapman, A.L.S., F.R.M.S., National Museum. 

 {Read before Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, I3th Feb., 1904.) 

 In the " Progress Report, No. II., of the Geological Survey of 

 Victoria (1S74)," p. 22, Prof. M'Coy figured four species of 

 fossils, represented by casts in Tertiary ironstone, from Poverty 

 Hill, 5 miles north of Stawell. The label attached to the rock- 

 specimen, which is in the geological collection of the National 

 Museum, gives the additional information that it was found 

 18 feet below the surface, and 23 feet above the "gold-drift." 

 The specimen was collected by Norman Taylor of the Victorian 

 Geological Survey. 



Since the time when M'Coy named these fossils, the majority 

 of our Tertiary invertebrates has been described by various 

 specialists ; and as figures of new forms based on casts are not 

 always very satisfactory for the purpose of subsequent identifica- 

 tion, it mav be in the interest of scientific workers to re-examine 



