Mr. W. S. MacLeay on his Antechinus Stuartii. 3.37 



classed together with the rotating currents of the Chara, Vaf- 

 lisnerice, &c. This treatise, under the title of ' Nouvelles ob- 

 servations sur la circulation dans les plantes/ is printed as an 

 appendix to the above prize-paper ; and, in the ' Botanical 

 Register' for 1839, p. 48, there is an extract from this im- 

 portant work of M. Schultz, under the title of ' Circulation of 

 the blood in plants.' The author of this extract is anonymous, 

 probably because he veryAvell knew that in this subject he was 

 not capable of forming any judgement ; the title alone shows 

 evidently that he knows nothing at all about the matter. 



The second point in this prize-paper to which I cannot 

 agree, is the bringing together of the most different formations 

 under the one name of latex-vessels. M. Schultz believes 

 that he has discovered that the bark as well as the wood con- 

 tains a peculiar vascular system, which forms the central point 

 of every development. In the ligneous fascicles of the mono- 

 cotyledons, M. Schultz considers the soft long cells which 

 are filled with a mucilaginous fluid, and which Mohl calls 

 vasa jjropria, as latex- vessels ; though it is so very easy, even 

 in succulent plants of this kind, to observe the true latex- 

 vessels near the ligneous bundles, -and which have no simi- 

 larity to those in the interior of the bundles. M. Schultz even 

 considered the small cells of the ferns which are filled w ith 

 starch as latex-vessels ; they surround the fascicle of spiral 

 tubes, and are deposited on the inner surface of the bast- 

 tubes, &c. M. Schultz has by no means con'ectly understood 

 the peculiarity of the latex-vessels of the Euphorbiacece, which, 

 as 1 have long since shown, possess the structure of the bast- 

 tubes of the Apocyneoi and Asclepnadece, and also occupy the 

 place of the bast-tubes (which are wanting in the Euplior- 

 biacece), and still contain latex, while the bast-tubes of the 

 Apocynece, which do not ramify, contain but very little latex ; 

 but here there is a true vascular system a little on the outside 

 of the bast-tubes, Avhose stems exhibit anastomoses, and con- 

 tain only a little opake latex. 



[To be continued.] 



XLII. — Additional Particulars respecting Antechinus Stu- 

 artii, a neiv Marsupial Quadruped. By W. S. MacLeay, 

 Esq., F.L.S., &c. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 

 Dear Sir, 

 Since I wrote you* concerning what I had reason at that 

 time to think might possibly prove to be a new quadruped 



• See our preceding Number, p 211. 

 Ann. ^ May. N. Hist. Vol. viii. Z 



