K A L M I A K A N G U R O O. 



but chiefly as a dye-stuff. They are managed in the 

 stove by growing- them in light sandy loam, sparingly 

 watered when dormant, hut plentifully when ingrowth : 

 and are propagated by division. 



KALMIA (Linmeus). A genus of beautiful North 

 American plants belonging to the tenth class of sexual 

 botany, and to the natural order Rhodariicctc. The 

 handsome figure of the shfab, the beauty of its foliage, 

 and the exquisite form and delicate tints of the 

 Howers, introduces these shrubs among the choicest 

 ornaments of the flower garden. They are always 

 grown in moor earth along with rhododendrons and 

 the like, and as they ripen seeds plentifully, they are 

 easily propagated. 



KANGURQO (Kangurus). A genus of marsupial 

 mammalia, peculiar to Australia ; and in some re- 

 spects one of the most extraordinary productions of the 

 animal kingdom. They are so, from the fact of 

 being the largest animals having a double gesta- 

 tion, the first uterine or internal, and performed through 

 the medium of a placenta, and the second marsupial, 

 or carried on in a pouch or appendage to the abdo- 

 men of the female, without the intervention of any 

 thing like a regular placenta, unless it is considered 

 that the teat to which the young is for some time 

 attached, though it afterwards can attach and detach 

 itself at pleasure, and even quit the pouch in order 

 to browse (lie grass, may perhaps be considered as 

 performing a similar office to that of a placenta, at 

 least for some part of the period during which the 

 young one inhabits the pouch. That there is a closer 

 connexion between the teat of the marsupial animal 

 and the young one which is to be nursed upon that 

 teat, than then- is between the teats of ordinary mam- 

 malia and the young which they nourish, is a point 

 which must be admitted ; for the individual teat 

 which nurses the young one is a temporary part ; 

 and so perhaps, at least in many of the species, is the 

 glandular apparatus, by which the nourishment of 

 the young one is secreted. This point is indeed an 

 obscure one ; for up to a period comparatively very 

 recent, we know little or nothing of the curious phy- 

 siology of marsupial animals; and there was a strong, 

 perhaps a too strong, disposition to consider the 

 whole gestation of the animals as uterine, and the 

 abdominal pouch as little else than a simple sack in 

 which the young were carried about. Now, that the 

 young are, in many of the species, carried in the 

 pouch is perfectly true ; but it is equally true, that 

 the pouch performs other and far more important 

 functions in their economy ; and as there is perhaps 

 no species in which the pouch, with all its apparatus, 

 is more perfect than in the kanguroo, and as that ani- 

 mal, from its size and habits, and its ability to bear 

 the climate of Europe, is the best subject by the ob- 

 servation of which to work out the general truths, it 

 is desirable that as much attention should be paid to 

 it as possible. 



We know from actual observation, conducted at 

 the London Zoological Gardens, under circumstances 

 the most favourable and by parties the most compe- 

 tent, what portion of the whole time of development 

 of the foetus, from the pairing to the time that it is 

 able to shift for itself, is uterine, and what part is 

 marsupial. We know also that, preparatory to the 

 lodgment of the embryo (for it is still very rudimen- 

 tal or unformed), and also for some time after it has 

 been lodged there, there is an action of the marsu- 

 piuin, which, though we cannot say that it is similar 



to the action of a conceiving uterus, yet bears no in- 

 considerable resemblance to it in many respects ; and 

 one of the most remarkable of these is the production 

 of the teat to which the young 1 one is to adhere. 



What may be the purpose in the economy of those 

 animals which is answered by this very extraordinary 

 kind of gestation, we are not in a condition for deter- 

 mining ; for all our speculations respecting the adap- 

 tation of the structure and physiology of animals to 

 their habits and nature, and the part which they are 

 to perform, and the purpose which they are to answer 

 by them, have been so framed, and are still so worked 

 out, exclusively from the examples of the placental 

 mammalia, that they fail us whenever we attempt to 

 give a reason for the very different formation and 

 functions of these most extraordinary creatures. 



The kanguroos are interesting in another point of 

 view, besides this singular mode of production, which 

 they possess, in great part at least, in common with 

 all the marsupial animals. They are the only ani- 

 mals, of any considerable size, in Australia, which bear 

 the least analogy to the ruminantia, or grazing ani- 

 mals of other parts of the world ; and though this 

 analogy is an exceedingly loose one, inasmuch as it 

 applies only to the kind of food, but not to the fur- 

 nishing of the mouth, by which that food is taken, or 

 to the stomach, in which it is digested. If in these 

 respects we consider the kanguroos, the common 

 mammalia to which they have the nearest relation 

 are the rodentia, or gnawing animals ; and in the 

 case of them, the analogy is also very partial, so 

 much so indeed, that, in order to express it cor- 

 rectly, we ought to take it upon the negative state- 

 ment, and say that the kanguroos are less unlike the 

 rodentia than most of the other mammalia ; but this 

 is a species of saying which is calculated to convey 

 very little information ; and in the present state of 

 our knowledge we must be contented with little more 

 than a simple description of these animals, leaving 

 their relations to the rest of the animal creation, and 

 to the physical circumstances of that portion of the 

 globe in which alone they are to be found, to be more 

 fully illustrated when further observation shall have 

 furnished the means. 



The name kangnroo is that given to the animal by 

 at least some of the many hordes or packs of savage 

 inhabitants which were found in Australia at tiie 

 time when it was first visited by Europeans ; and 

 probably the retaining of this name, both as the com- 

 mon English and the scientific one, is the wisest plan 

 which can be adopted. That disposition to call 

 names, by which systematic naturalists are often too 

 much beset, has led to the application of one or two 

 to the animals of this genus. The late Dr. Shaw, 

 who was very laborious in compilations respecting 

 the natural history of animals, though perhaps far 

 from the most philosophic and discriminating that 

 ever undertook such a task, applied the name Macro- 

 pus, or large foot, and that name is accordingly to be 

 met. with in many of the books. Others have given 

 different names descriptive of various parts of the 

 structure or action of the anima! ; but there is none 

 of them that reaches the real character ; so that there 

 does not appear to be any necessity for changing the 

 native name, which, if it has no other advantage, at 

 least possesses this one that it does not mix up the 

 subject for which it stands with any other genus of 

 animals. 



Altogether the kanguroos are animals of singular 

 " A 2 



