142 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Deaue exhibited fresh specimens of a new species of Orchid, 

 Prasophyllum Deanianum, Fitzg., iipon which he made the 

 following remarks : — " No desci-iption of this species has yet 

 been published, but it has been figured by Mr. Fitzgerald from 

 a specimen obtained by me in 1885, and the plate will appear in 

 the next number of the ' Australian Orchids.' The species belongs 

 to the section Genoplesium of R. Brown's genus Prasophyllum, 

 and it is remarkable for being closely allied to a plant named G. 

 Baueri by Brown in his Prodromus, and of which Bauer obtained 

 only a single specimen, which was however figured by him. 

 Bentham in his remaiks on G. Baueri (see F. Aust. VI., 344) 

 under P. ru^um, throws doubt upon the actual existence of 

 Bauer's plant, and believes it to be an abnormal specimen of P. 

 rufum, which Hooker referred to P. hrachystachyum. The 

 discovery of the species found by me at Glades ville, on the 

 Parramatta River, proves the existence of a plant similar to that 

 found and figui'ed by Bauer, and it must be inferi'ed that Bentham 

 and Hooker's views were incorrect and that Bauer's species has a 

 real existence. Mr. Fitzgerald has obtained a copy of Bauer's 

 drawing from the British Museum, and has reproduced it by the 

 side of his figure of /*. Deanianum by which its analogies can be 

 seen. The specimen exhibited is, it is evident, quite distinct from 

 its nearest allies, P. nigricans and P. ru/um." 



Mr. Deane also read part of a letter from Baron von Mueller 

 acknowledging the distinctness of the species. 



Mr. Deane also exhibited for Mr. Percy Williams fei'ruginous 

 rib-like concretions found in pipe-clay at Mulgutherie, Lachlan 

 River, evidently hardened remains of the shale whose decompo- 

 sition produced the pipe-clay. 



Mr. Ratte exhibited a specimen of " kerosene shale" or torbanite, 

 affording a good example of the mode of fracture, and remarkable 

 for its fantastic shape. 



Mr. Masters exhibited specimens of the common opossum 

 ( Phalangista vulpina) from New South Wales, and several 



