THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 157 
greasy matter, exuded from orifices on the abdominal seg- 
ments. It is the increasing layers of exudation which form 
these large white masses now so much in evidence on the 
leafless trees. 
The female coccid, so different from the original larva 
which possesses perfect eyes, antennae and legs, is now a 
dull-red, soft-bodied form, without any definite structure 
or appendages. i 
As with most coccids, the male is very rarely found, 
but is recorded as a microscopic two-winged insect, with 
slender antennae and large eyes, but without any mouth, 
and, therefore, his life is of the briefest. 
KEY TO THE N.S. WALES GENERA AND SPECIES 
OF GOODENIACEAE. 
(By E. Betche.) 
It is now some 20 years since the publication of the 
Handbook of the Flora of N. S. Wales, and, during that 
period, experience in using the. Key to the Goodeniaceae 
has shewn me the necessity for a revision which would take 
cognisance of the additions to our knowledge of the group 
which have since been made. In the light of that experience 
I now think that it was a mistake to substitute artificial 
sections for Bentham’s excellent natural ones, and I have 
thought a new key would be interesting and perhaps useful 
to members of this Society. 
Our first attempt to write a Flora of N. S. Wales was 
a very unambitious one. The late Mr. Moore got permis- 
sion from the then Government for the publication in one 
volume, and instructed me, with the object+of economising 
space, to extract uncritically shortened descriptions of the 
N. S. Wales plants from Bentham’s Flora Australiensis, 
adding the species described subsequently to the publica- 
tion of that work. The result was the handbook in its 
present form, though there is an immense difference be- 
tween the work in its first and in its last conception. 
In a dichotomous Key, the method followed is to find 
for each genus two contrasting characters which divide 
the constituent species into groups, and to continue to spilt 
each group again into two until the individual species is 
found. This, of course, necessitates a good knowledge of 
all the species, with their variations. 
The Key now put before the Society is a modified 
