Desa-iption of a Neiv Species of Plumatella. 203 



according: to the testimony of the farmers, thousands once 

 dwelt, drinking at their own fountains, and killing their own 

 game ; but now, alas, scarcely is a family to be seen ! It is 

 impossible to look over those now uninhabited plains and 

 mountain glens without feeling the deepest melancholy, whilst 

 the winds moaning in the vale seem to echo back the sound, 

 " AVhere are they ?" 



PiVhile tlie foregoing sheets were going tbrongh the press, intelligence 

 having reached Melbourne of the value, as an edible seed, of the Marsileoi 

 hirni/a (or Nardo), as found so useful in the Victorian Expedition, and 

 which was the means of saving the lives of King, the sole survavor of 

 Burke's party, as well as those of Lj^ons and M'Pherson, -who had been sent 

 with despatches to Mr. Burke, it has occurred to me that it ■would be well 

 to mention that I found the same plant growing in Dumby Bay, Port 

 Lincoln ; but I did not observe that the natives had ever made any use of it 

 as an article of food.] 



Art. XI. — Desaiption of a Neiu Species of PlumaieUa. By 

 P. H. McGiLLivRAY, A.M., M.R.C.S. 



[Read before the Society, October 29th, 1S60.] 



The study of the fresh water polyzoa has been so completely 

 neglected by natm'alists, except in Europe and North 

 America, that at the date of publication of Professor Allman's 

 great monograph, no species were known to occur south of 

 the north temperate zone. Since that time a new form — 

 Hislopia facnstris — has been described from Nagpoor, in 

 Central India, by Mr. H. J. Carter, avIio has also found in 

 the tanks at Bombay a species of Lophojms and a Plumatella, 

 identical with P. stricta, Allm.* With these exceptions I 

 believe that no addition to the geographical range has been 

 made since the appearance of Allman's Avork. 



Having long been familiar with the extreme richness of 

 our fauna in marine polyzoa, I was satisfied that fresh water 

 forms required only to be looked for to be found ; and Mr. 

 Aplin, of the geological survey, to whom I expressed this 

 opinion, at once commenced the search. The result has 



* Annals and Magazine of Natural History, March 1858, and May 1859. 



