48 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
contains, in addition to pleasant personal gossip, some interesting 
notes on the flora of Australia. Mr. Whitelegge is now a member 
of the Linnzean and Royal Societies of New South Wales, and is at 
present temporarily engaged in the mounting of a large collection 
of shells at the Australian Museum in Sydney. When this task is 
completed he will probably go to Western Australia on a collecting 
expedition for the Hon. W. Macleay, who has a very large private 
museum. ‘The following extracts will be read with intererst :—“I 
have done very little collecting as yet, although I am always out 
somewhere. The number of British plants naturalised here is 
astonishing. As you walk along the roads or cross the fields you 
might almost fancy yourself athome. /umaria officinalis, Lepidium 
sativum, Sisymbrium officinale, S. didyma, Capsella bursdpastorts, 
Evrodium cicutartum, and E. moschatum, Malva rotundifolia, M. 
sylvestris, Urtica urens, Stellaria media, Cerastium vulgatum, and 
so on, besides nearly all the English docks, thistles, and chenopo- 
diums, with trifolium, melilotis, &c. Plantains, and plants belong- 
ing the order Compositz, and grasses are everywhere. As to the 
Australian plants, I can say but little, as I know only a few. Out 
in the bush there are plants in abundance, banksias, eucalyptas, 
mellilucas, and acacias being the most abundant; also a vast 
number of leguminous plants. Orchids are plentiful, and very 
pretty. Sundews literally cover the ground in damp situations. 
Drosera spathulata, D. dichotoma, D. peltata, are found close to 
where I live, which is but a few minutes’ walk from a big swamp 
some eight or ten miles in extent, full of sedges and liliaceous 
plants. ‘There are many pools and streams. ‘There are nitella, 
chara, mosses, sphagnums, and liverworts in plenty; in fact the 
swamp literally swarms with life: snakes, frogs, and lizards move 
about in all directions as you walk along. I have found many 
things that had not been observed here before. Some of these are 
quite new. So far, I have found three species of fresh water polyzoa 
—namely, /lumatella repens, Fredericella Sultana, and one not 
identified ; about ten or twelve species of tube-building rotifers— 
Melicerta ringens, Gicistes janus, 2. pilula, Limnias ceratophylti, 
L. annulatus, Cephalosiphon limnias, and two new species. Of 
Floscularias I have found about six species, two of which I believe 
are new. I have also found two species of sponges, one new 
to science, and the other only found in Queensland. I have added 
to the lists of plants known in the Sydney district chiefly nitellas, 
&c. Ferns are very pretty here, but I have not paid much atten- 
tion to them yet. I have seen Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense in 
plenty, and Adiantum hispidulum, A. affine, Gleichenia circinata, 
and many others. The Azol/a pinnata covers the water here like 
duckweed at home. It is really a sight worth seeing, the plant 
being of a dark brownish-red colour. I have not yet seen any 
