THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST 
5 
The leaves arise from a broad base, entirely sheathing the stem and 
taper to a point : they do not leave scars on the stem. 
Rithea . The flowers are in clusters in the axils of leaf-like bracts. 
Corolla has only very minute lobes and is thrown ofl like a hood by 
splitting round near the base. In one of our rare forms, R. milligani, 
the corolla generally splits on one side and shrivels on the bush. I he 
leaves are as in Sprengelia, but leave ringlike scars. 
Draco[)Jiyllutn differs from Richea practically only in the corollas 
being bell-shaped and persistent. One ol our two species is dwarf and 
forms dense cushions indistinguishable from Abrotanella and Donatia. 
In this species the flower is solitary and terminal; the other is very like 
our Giant Grasstree, but does not attain such large proportions, and 
instead of the insignificant flowers of that plant it bears a terminal loose 
flower cluster of most beautiful little pendant, pinkish, white bells. 
Dotes on Casmanian Crustacea, 
By G. W. SMITH, M.A., Oxford. 
5 |S*HE class Crustacea includes a very great number of animals, most 
fl of which live in the sea, but a very large number of them inhabit 
fresh-water lakes, ponds and streams, and it is of these that I intern 
chiefly to speak. 
Probably the Crustacea that are best known to most of us are those 
which are seen in shop windows and sometimes find their way on to the 
dinner table ; such are the prawns and shrimps, and the large red cray¬ 
fish (Panulirus), which is also prized as a delicacy on the Mediterranean 
coasts, and is eaten there under the name of Langouste. 
The fresh-water lobster of Tasmania is also very good to eat (Asta- 
copsis Franklinii), and grows to a very large sue in the rtvers of northern 
and western Tasmania ; but in the rivers and creeks round Hobart the 
iobster appears always to remain small and insignificant, whether for lack 
of food or because it is a distinct smaller species, is not known 
certain. 
Fresh water lobsters are found pretty well all over the temperate 
regions of the world, but they are not found at all m the tropics. The 
Tasmanian lobster is closely related to those found in Austiral a, New 
Zealand South America, and Madagascar— i.e., in the temperate 
southern hemisphere: and it is quite distinct from those which occur 
all round the north temperate zone in North America, Europe, an 
China. . . 
This is a remarkable fact, because the land regions in the southern 
hemisphere^ are 7 the present time separated by very wide and deep 
oceans, across which the fresh water lobsters could not possibly ever 
