THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 93 



Helicia Sayeriana. 



Almost glabrous ; leaves large, on very short stalks, roundish- 

 ovate, firmly chartaceous, much paler and not shining beneath, 

 remotely denticulated, costate- nerved, subtle-veined ; racemes 

 elongated ; bracts minute, narrow, acute ; pedicels very short, 

 semiconnate in pairs ; petals very narrow, except at the dilated 

 summit ; anthers oblong-linear, conspicuously apiculated ; style 

 capillary; stigma short, clavate-ellipsoid ; hypogynous scales roundish, 

 somewhat connate ; ovary glabrous. 



On the Russell-River ; W. Sayer. 



Leaves scattered, so far as known attaining a length of 

 9 and a breadth of 6 inches, dark-green above, somewhat acute 

 at the base ; the lateral nerves rather distant, anastomosing 

 towards the margin of the leaf ; meshes of primary veins 

 ample. Racemes spike-like, sometimes fully a foot long, 

 lateral, short-stalked. Rachis glabrous. Pedicels slightly 

 silky, iJV-g- inch long during flowering time. Petals measuring 

 about ^ inch in length. Anthers almost sessile ; connective broad. 

 Style hardly longer than the petals. Ovary rather slender. Fruit 

 unknown. 



This species differs from the North- "Western H. Australasica in 

 larger and proportionately much broader leaves with more dissimi- 

 larity of colour of the two pages, in longer racemes with considerably 

 larger flowers, in longer pedicels and in the not silky ovary ; the 

 fruits of the two may prove also different. 



(To be continued.) 



A VERY YOUNG PLATYPUS. 



The extraordinary interest excited by the discovery of the eggs 

 of the platypus by Mr. Caldwell, in Queensland, some time ago, 

 will be remembered ; how the news was cabled to England and 

 back again, and how leaders and paragraphs appeared in nearly 

 every newspaper in the .colonies, commenting upon the extraordinary 

 discovery. But the question whether the platypus was oviparous 

 having been settled, another arose. How did the young platypus 

 manage, as it had long been discovered that the female was so 

 constructed as to suckle its young, and this seemed most singular 

 in the case of an animal provided with a bill or beak of a fowl. 

 However, the matter has been set at rest by a discovery made by 

 the Rev. P. A. Hagenauer a couple of days ago at Ramahyuck. 

 Mr. Hagenauer was anxious to secure a pair of platypi lor the 

 Royal Park Gardens, and set a couple of his blackfellows to work to 



