76 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



In same respects allied to C. pruinosa, but with very different 

 stipules, less flat and blunter leaflets, shorter pedicels and 

 peculiar but imperfect indument, by which latter characteristic 

 this species also differs from all other Australian congeners, even 

 those of the group of C. artemisioides 



Candollea Merrallii. (Stylidium Merrallii, F. v. M. coll.) 



Erect or diffusa, rather dwarf, beset with very short spreading 

 partly glandule-bearing hairlets ; leaves small, flat, of rather 

 firm consistence, those at the root or at any nodes rosette-like 

 crowded, from linear-to obovatecuneate, glabrescent, thickly 

 white-margined, minutely apiculated ; stem-leaves spreading, 

 from elliptic-lanceolar to broad-linear, scattered but approxi- 

 mated, unmargined ; floral leaves smaller, opposite, all of them^ 

 sessile ; racemes few-or several-flowered, without any separate 

 stalk, solitary or two together ; stalklets much shorter than 

 the calyx; tube of the latter nearly narrow-ellipsoid; lobes 

 very short, almost elliptical ; corolla quite small, nearly gla- 

 brous ; gynostemium about twice as long as the corolla, quite 

 glabrous ; fruit cylindric-ellipsoid, slightly compressed, bursting 

 in its whole length ; seeds minute, brown, turgidly ovate,, 

 almost smooth. 



Near Lake Brov/n ; Edwin Merrall. 



Stems weak, often somewhat leafy throughout, proliferous, 

 occasionally branched ; the outer of the rosette-leaves attaining 

 half an inch in length, the inner gradually shorter ; scattered 

 stem-leaves from -J- to ^ inch long ; calyx-lobes without any 

 scarious margination ; corolla nearly pale when dry, but with a 

 slight bluish hue, its paired segments • blique-obovate, the 

 lower two also somewhat cuneate ; labellum minute, roundish, 

 turgid, with two subulate basal appendages ; fruit about | inch 

 long, the two valves inflexed along their margin, several times 

 longer than broad. The species is well marked, and is — as far 

 as we are hitherto aware — very local ; its systematic position 

 might best be near C. breviscapa. 



By an oversight the omission of the name Athrixia Croniniana 

 occurred in the August issue of the " Victorian Naturalist,"' 

 where a description of that lately discovered plant was given. 



A CURIOUS PHENOMENON. 



The palolo is a very curious, thread-like sea-worm, appearing 

 in the reef openings once a year only for the single hour 

 immediately before sunrise. On their arrival the natives 

 assemble in their canoes and scoop them up in balers of all 

 sorts, esteeming them immensely as an edible delicacy. 



The Samoans can calculate to a moment when their arrival 

 is due by observing the juxtaposition of the moon with a certain 



