GENERAL NOTES. 127 
posing from their size. We have aimed only to place before the 
public such portions of our collections as shall become instructive ; 
and in our storage and work rooms the appliances for storage 
aim at economy for space, and are intended, while they do not 
neglect the careful preservation of the collections, to give to the 
assistants and students the freest and quickest possible access to 
them.” 
DACTYLANTHUS TAYLORI.—In No. 10, Vol. 1, N.Z. JOURNAL 
OF SCIENCE, I recorded the finding of the above-mentioned 
plant. In the January of this year I again visited the spot to 
endeavour to ascertain, if possible, the mode of attachment to 
the root of the tree on which the plant is supposed to grow. I 
found the tuberous mass uninjured, but no fresh buds or flowers 
had developed to replace those which I removed last Easter. 
After carefully clearing away the surrounding rootlets and rub- 
bish, I cut out of the ground with an old sawa solid cube of 
earth equal to the size'ofabox which Ihad brought up with me, and 
carefully transferred the plant to the box, packing carefully with 
moss. Ithen examined the edge of the hole from whence I 
had taken the plant ; I saw a root nearly two inches in diameter, 
from which a gummy, sticky juice exuded. This proved to be 
the continuation of the root of the tuberous mass. Clearing 
away the very loose pumice soil surrounding it I found that the 
root bifurcated about two inches below the saw-cut, one portion 
going one way, the other in an opposite direction. I gave ita 
tug and the portion of root on my right hand side came out of 
the ground, breaking about three feet from the fork.. This piece 
was about the same diameter (% an inch) the whole length and 
had remarkably few rootlets. The exterior was soft and gummy, 
having a thin red cuticle. The central portion tough and 
stringy. I then resolved to trace the second or left hand branch 
back as far as necessary. This portion of the root was thicker 
than the other, and went down into the loose pumice svil (which 
consisted of fragments about half the size of a pea), below the 
superficial mass of vegetable soil and roots. Altogether I traced 
it five feet from the fork, and still there was no sign of the end. 
It was now so deep that the labour of moving the soil was too 
great, so I reluctantly left it still going down, down, into the 
pumice which was quite free from any admixture of vegetable 
soil. The root at the furthest point reached was as thick as my 
thumb, and in the whole five feet there were hardly a dozen 
rootlets. Isearched the neighbourhood carefully, but failed to 
find any more specimens.—A.H. 
LARGE SHARK.—In the same number of the JOURNAL 
I noticed the occurrence of a large shark (Carcharias) 
in the Napier Harbour; this month (April) another of the 
same species was killed near the Napier Bridge. It was 
ao, cin, ons, “and more than” 12 fect in ‘girth,’ The 
