Miscellaneous . 
319 
INQUIRIES FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 
The Editor begs to submit to the readers of the Tasmanian 
Journal the following inquiries which have been addressed to 
him:— 
Can any of your readers furnish a detailed account of the 
destruction of the extensive forests about Lake Echo, Marl¬ 
borough, &c. during the winter of 1837, and stated to be by 
the frost about the 1st and 2nd of July in that year?—Informa¬ 
tion also would be desirable relative to the immense number of 
kangaroos said to have been found dead after the snow 
melted away in the same localities. 
A species of fly, which is a source of increasing torment to 
our horses during the summer months, lias within the last few 
years become common, and latterly most abundant. It also 
infests houses, biting very smartly; being in this respect, as it 
is in general appearance, very different from our old house-fly. 
It is generally asserted and believed that it was imported from 
Port Phillip; and all grooms and coachmen unite in stating 
that until lately it was unknown. Can any of your entomo¬ 
logical readers furnish information about this fly—whether 
they possess specimens in any old collection of our insects: and 
if not, when they first observed it, &c. ? 
jSolfrr/rr angustifolia .—Has any botanist in the island col- 
lected the Solbj/a angustifolia {Dillardiera fusifo'rmis, Labil.)? - Sol WV 
It is a blue-flowered species of climber, and stated to be an 
inhabitant of Van Diemen’s Land. 
Mettles . W ill any person, possessing correct information 
relative to the apparent spontaneous growth of nettles in remote 
places, furnish particulars; as also, if possible, dried speci¬ 
mens of the plants, that it may be ascertained whether they 
are an indigenous or British species. The most interesting 
fact would be their growth in a stook-yard, made and used 
exclusively (say for one season only) for collecting bush cattle, 
which could not have had the seeds of an imported species 
attached to their hair ? 
Marianthm caruleo-punctatus .—In the Annals and Maga¬ 
zine of Natural History for February 1841, where the first and 
second parts of a work called “ leones Plantarum Rariorum 
Horti ltegii Botanici Berolinensis, ,, are noticed, I perceive that 
the Marianthus above named is stated to be a new species 
from Van Diemen's Land . In the Botanical Magazine for Sep¬ 
tember, 1841, t. 3893, the same species is figured, and is there 
stated to be from “ The Darling range of mountains at the 
Swan River settlement.” This latter will, I think, be found 
to be the correct one, as I have seen no such plant in this 
Colony. This I deem worthy of remark, as otherwise erro¬ 
neous habitats being given to our Australian flora, tend to 
contuse vegetable geography,— Dotanicus . 
