THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 135 



short time I received his answer, as follows : — " I have duly 

 received your letter, and the specimen. It is a Degeera, and 

 closely resembles some of our European forms, but I cannot 

 say that it entirely agrees with any of our species." 



The species of Oribatidoe was sent to Mr. Michael, sometime 

 president of the Royal Microscopical Society, and wrote on these 

 insects for the Ray Society. Mr. Michael replies as follows : — 

 " On my return from the Tyrol I found your letter, and the 

 microscopical preparation which accompanied it, waiting me. 

 The very beautiful creature which it contains is certainly one of 

 the Oribatidse, and belongs to the genus Notapsis. I am not 

 ■aware that your species has ever been figured or described." 

 It will be thus seen that, to the credit of our club, a member has 

 not only added two new insects to our knowledge, but has 

 added them to the knowledge of the world. Duplicate speci- 

 mens of both these are here. 



I must now draw your attention to the larger sphere of my 

 work in microscopic botany. The gathering and preparing of 

 my collection of fresh water Alg£e has occupied a large pro- 

 portion of my leisure for many years. But, no doubt, the time 

 was considerably lengthened by the difficulty of naming them. 

 It is impossible as yet to name them out of Europe. The litera- 

 ture of the subject is scattered about in periodicals, pamphlets, 

 and articles in scientific journals in almost every country in 

 Europe, and it is only at intervals that a man may be found who 

 will devote his time sufficiently to the acquirement of the 

 necessary knowledge to be able to name Algge. It is only a 

 very few years since that the knowledge of these organisms has 

 been somewhat concentrated into a certain compass, but that 

 is only in the German language. Of course, I do not intend 

 to take all the credit of the collection now before you. Every 

 one of them was collected, prepared, and mounted by myself in 

 the state they now appear. Without the assistance of Baron 

 Von Mueller, the fresh water Algse of Victoria would not be in 

 the state that is now presented to you. Some of the earliest 

 collections were sent to Professor Kiitzing, but he is now so 

 advanced in years that he is unable to name any more. 

 Another specialist has, however, been found in Dr. Nordstett, 

 of the University of Lund, in Sweden, who has one or two 

 coadjutors with him. We have lately made more progress with 

 the Algae, thanks to the assistance of our friend, Baron Von 

 Mueller. Dr. M. C. Cooke has written a work on the British 

 fresh water Algce, in which he describes over 120 genera, one of 

 which has 50 species, and many others have from 12 to 20 

 species described. 



There is also a work in the English language by H. C. Wood, 



