114 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Entomological Society. Most people will have noticed the 

 common house fly, particularly in the autumn, attach itself to 

 windows and other places and become covered with a white 

 cottony-looking growth, which spreads on the glass around the 

 dead fly. This is caused by a fungus, Sporendonema musci (Cohn ), 

 which kills the fly and afterwards flourishes on its body.* Good 

 examples for the microscope may be obtained by transferring a 

 recently fixed fly to a glass slide, covering with a watch-glass and 

 setting aside for a few weeks. On removing the fly, mycelium 

 and spores of the fungus will be found adhering to the glass. 



The whole subject is one of much interest and economic im- 

 portance. Every bit of information which may aid us in under- 

 standing the parasites which affect insects has its value, and 1 

 have gone fully into details in the hope that our entomological 

 friends will keep a look-out when collecting, and bring forward any 

 specimens bearing on this subject which may come under their 

 notice. 



A very interesting field of study for those who have the 

 opportunity would be the inoculation of various species of 

 caterpillars with the spores of entomogenous and other fungi. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AUSTRALIAN PLANTS, WITH 

 OCCASIONAL OTHER ANNOTATIONS; 



By Baron von Mueller, KC.M.G., M. & Ph.D., F.R S. 

 (Continued.) Received November, 1890. 

 Lepidium Merralli. 



Annual, dwarf, weak, nearly or quite glabrous ; leaves linear, 

 entire or produced into a few narrow lobes; racemes short; 

 flowers extremely small, unprovided with petals ; stamens four ; 

 anthers about as broad as long ; stigma sessile, fruits quite small, 

 on pedicles of about double their length, rhomboid-orbicular, with 

 a very shallow terminal intrusion, reticular-venulated ; seeds 

 yellowish-brown, smooth. 



Near Parker's Range ; Edwin Merrall. Height 3-5 inches, so 

 far as known. Leaves yi-i inch long. Well developed fruits 

 measuring about T \y-inch. 



This plant differs from L. ruderale in its very short stems, 

 extreme narrowness of leaves, broader pedicels, fruits of lesser 

 size, as broad as long, rather more turgid, conspicuously venu- 

 lated, somewhat blunter at the edge and with a still smaller 

 terminal emargination. 



In Z. Merralli rather the lower half of the fruit is the broadest, 

 while in Z. inderale the reverse takes place. Z. leplopetalum 

 occurs on the Lachlan-River (F. v. M.); Z. rotundum at Cooper's 

 Creek (Flierl) ; Z. monoplocoides on Yorke's Peninsula (Tepper) ; 

 Z. foliosum at Port Fairy (Dattari). 



* See " Micrographic Dictionary," 1883, p. 723. 



