188 CORRESPONDENCE. 
words with which he qualifies the result of his observation ; for, when he 
says that this distant animal “ is perhaps otherwise very differently con- 
structed,” it is obvious that its real organization cannot be discerned. 
It requires a strong power of vision to see clearly as far back as 
thousands on thousands of generations ; the stream of time contracts a 
haze in its progress; the world of a million years ago is very misty, 
and the best glasses are inadequate to penetrate the obscurity of so re- 
mote and indefinite an antiquity. (From * The Darwinian Theory of 
ihe Origin of Species Examined, by a Graduate of the University of 
Cambridge,’ pp. 5-11.) 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
P gsc drei Tan and deu 
vious inquiry in this matter has gone. And, again, no doubt there are books 
known to your readers which no searching of libraries would diseover to me. 
I should be greatly obliged to any one who will kindly help me, either by the 
loan of books, or by sending me their titles and the names of the publishers, 
or by giving me any suggestions upon the subject. 
Newport, Isle of Wight, April 30th, 1868. FRED. STRATTON. 
Notes on Australian Plants. 
. Having deprived the Buettneriacee, some time since, of the genus Macar- 
thuria, I make some return in referring to that Order Lachnostachys (Pyeno- 
lachne, Turez.. I had lately occasion to s tudy the fruit, which shows the 
embryo to be straight, and lodged in the axis of amygdaloid albumen. Indee 
the genus is truly hg ste though constituting a separate tribe. The 
nched 
the others certain Thomasie. Opposite, moreover, they occur also in Lasiope- 
talum, while in the latter genus the petals are also frequently wanting. 
solitary carpel is likewise shown y Waltheria, while a iuga e = of fila- 
p xpo Amo a and Spartothamnus (Teucridium) are reu from Myo- 
ordinal eharacters of the latter become far more clear. Indeed, 
ibn. if not both, are truly Verbenaceous. Lachnosephilus is iden- 
tical with Mallophora. 
