142 Miscellaneous. 
which the German naturalist has fallen on the subject of the organt- 
zation of the spores. M. Unger regards them as clothed with a 
ciliated membrane, similar to that which he was the first to observe 
on the spores of the Vaucheria. Iam convinced, on the contrary, 
by repeated observations, that they are furnished with two long cilia 
inserted on the rostrum; an analogous arrangement to that which I 
have figured in the spores of the Conferva glomerata and crispata*. 
During the excursion which I made with M. Decaisne on the coasts 
of the British Channel, we had frequent opportunity of studying the 
spores of Ectocarpus siliculosus, of Ulva lactuca, and of Enteromor- 
pha compressa. In the Ectocarpus we found two cilia inserted on 
a colourless rostrum. In Ulva and Enteromorpha the spores have 
four cilia. I found this same number .in soft-water Algz, the Con- 
ferva zonata, whose spores are similar to those of the Chetophora and 
Draparnauldia. ‘They present a very visible red point, which I have 
even perceived sometimes on spores still enclosed in the tube of the 
plant. I may remark that the Conferva zonata is, moreover, a very 
distinct Alga from the true Conferve. These latter appear to me to 
form a clearly limited genus, all the species of which have the tube 
finely striped with longitudinal striz, for instance Conferva glomerata, 
crispata, rupestris, &c. ‘These longitudinal striz are themselves in- 
tersected by extremely fine transversal striae, which appear to me 
to have hitherto escaped all microscopic observers.—Ann. des Sci. 
Nat., Mai 1845. 
On the Extinct Mammals of Australia, with Additional Observations 
on the genus Dinornis of New Zealand. By Prof. Owen. 
In a previous report Prof. Owen had demonstrated the former 
existence in Australia of two genera of Marsupial animals, rivalling 
in size the rhinoceros and hippopotamus of the old continent. Since 
the reading of his first report, Prof. Owen had received three molar 
teeth belonging to the upper jaw of the Diprotodon; the crown of 
each tooth was divided into two principal transverse ridges, like those 
of the lower jaw, and the enamel presented the wrinkled and punc- 
tate surface peculiar to the genus. With these was found a large 
scalpriform inciscr, whose bevelled cutting edge showed that it 
worked upon a similar tooth in the lower jaw. The Diprotodon, 
therefore, had molars like the kangaroo; but, instead of the two 
large incisors in the lower jaw being opposed to six smaller in the 
upper, as in the kangaroo, it had two large incisors above as well as 
below, agreeing in form and structure, and relative size, with those 
of the Wombat. Prof. Owen considered himself justified in conclu- 
ding that the Diprotodon combined the characters of Phascolomys 
with those of Macropus, exhibiting both upon a gigantic scale, and 
constituting one of those links in the chain of being which the course 
® Recherches sur les Organes Locomoteurs des Spores des Algues (Ann. 
des Se. Nat., 2nd Series, 1848, vol. xix. p. 266. pl. 10.). In that memoir I 
have erroneously designated the Conferva crispata by the name of C, rivu- 
laris. 
