Miscellaneous, 443 



Polypterus Lapradei, sp. n., and Polypterus senegalus. 

 By F, Steindachuer. 



The author has discovered that in the two species of Ganoid fishes 

 ahove mentioned external branchiae occur when they are young. 

 In his new species, P. Lapradei, the branchise persist in indivi- 

 duals 19 inches long. They consist of a long, flattened band, with 

 fringed edges, very like the external branchise of the axolotls ; 

 there is a single one on each side behind the operculum, and it does 

 not pass the posterior margin of the pectoral fin. In P. senegalus 

 this transitory organ disappears sooner, and is no longer to be found 

 in specimens measuring 3|-4 inches in length. That these are 

 respiratory organs has been proved by the anatomical investigations 

 of Prof. Hyrtl. — Note by M. A. Dumeril, Comptes Eendus, Oct. 18, 

 1869, p. 898. 



Large Trees in Australia. 



On this subject the government director of the Botanic Garden at 

 Melbourne furnishes some interesting details, as follows : — " The 

 marvellous height of some of the Australian (and especially the 

 Victorian) trees has become the subject of closer investigation since 

 of late (particularly through the miners' tracks) easier access has 

 been afforded to the back gullies of our mountain -system. Some 

 astounding data, supported by actual measurements, are now on 

 record. The highest tree previously known was a Karri Eucalyptus 

 {Eucalyptus cohssea), measured by Mr. Pemberton Walcott, in one 

 of the delightful glens of the Warren River, in Western Australia, 

 where it rises to approximately 400 feet high. Into the hollow 

 trunk of this Karri, three riders, with an additional pack-horse, could 

 enter and turn in it without dismounting. At the desire of the 

 writer of those pages (Dr. MiiUer), Mr. D. Bogle measured a fallen 

 tree of Eucalyptus amygdalina, in the deep recesses of Daudenong 

 (Victoria), and obtained for it the length of 420 feet, with propor- 

 tionate width ; while Mr. G. Klein took the measurement of a Eu- 

 calyptus on the Black Spur, ten miles distant from Healesville, 4S0 



feet high It is not at all likely that, in these isolated inquiries, 



chance has led to the really highest trees, which the most secluded 

 and the least accessible spots may still conceal. It seems, however, 

 almost beyond dispute that the trees of Aiistralia rival in length, 

 though evidently not in thickness, even the renowned forest giants 

 of California, ^Sequoia Wellingtonia, the highest of which, as far as 

 the writer is aware, rises, in their favourite haunts at the Sierra 

 Nevada, to about 450 feet. . . . Thus to Victorian trees the palm 

 must be conceded for elevation." — Mossman's Origin of the Seasons, 

 p. 367. 



