42 JOURNAL: OF SCIENCE. 
THE FERNS AND FERN ALLIES OF NEW ZEALAND is the 
title of a work recently brought out by Messrs Wise, Caffin & 
Co., of Dunedin, and George Robertson of Melbourne. As the 
author is the editor of this journal, it is not intended to do more 
in these columns than mention the fact of its publication. The 
book has been very nicely got up by the publishers, and is illus- 
trated by lithographed plates showing the characters of all the 
genera. 
MICROSCOPIC PREPARATION OF COPEPODA.—The following 
mode of preserving these little crustaceans is given by C. F. 
Giesler (in American Nat. for Sept. 1881, p. 690) :—Place the 
living specimens in alcohol, and leave them for some little time 
till they become yellowish coloured. Then pour off the alcohol, 
and macerate for one day in a mixture consisting of a strong 
solution of pure carmine in concentrated ammonia and a little 
glycerine. Then wash the staining liquid gradually off, first 
with water and then with alcohol, and preserve in glycerine for 
examination. 
I use the following method myself:—I kill the animals by 
placing them in a little clear water, and gradually adding 
elycerine-water (1 part glycerine to 2 parts distilled water). The 
water is drawn off after they are quite dead, and replaced by a 
little glycerine-water, to which pure glycerine is slowly added. 
They may be kept in this for an indefinite length of time, and 
when wanted as permanent preparations, may be mounted in 
> glycerine jelly. I have some preparations made four years ago 
after this manner, in which the natural colours and appearance 
of the animals are beautifully preserved. As a general rule 
animals preserved in glycerine become rather more transparent 
than in their natural condition. G.M.T. 
ON MIMULUS RADICANS.—This pretty little plant grows 
abundantly on the Lea Stream Flat in Otago, from which loca- 
lity I have received numerous specimens from Mr. S. Fulton, of 
Outram. In most of these the flowers were of very abnormal struc- 
ture, and many were evidently compounded of two or even three 
flowers aggregated into one. In those of the most normal form 
the two lips are very distinct, the upper purple, narrow-oblong in 
form, and bi-lobed ; the lower widely 3-lobed, and with a wide 
band formed of 3 rows of brownish-yellow hairs leading down to 
the honey cavity. The lamellate stigma stands straight up 
against the upper lip, with its flat lobes facing the opening of the 
flower, and underneath it are the four stamens, their filaments 
being greatly curved together and forming two arches in the back 
of the flower. Each flower has a single bract on the peduncle. 
As in all the species of the genus the lobes of the stigma are irri- 
table ; those examined by me took nearly a minute to close after ~ 
being touched, but they had been gathered some hours. Usually 
they close completely in from 10 to 20 seconds after irritation, 
