106 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Maiden exhibited the Myxomycete {Fhysarum cinereiom^ 

 Pers.) described in Mr. Mc Alpine's paper. Also another 

 parasitic fungus, Cerebella androjwgonis, Cesati, found on Andro- 

 jjogon pertusus in New England. This is the first time this 

 fungus has been recorded from New South Wales; the determina- 

 tion was made by Mr. Alex. Grant. 



Mr. Maiden also exhibited a series of South African Proteacese 

 belonging to the genera Aulax, Leucadendron, Protea, and Leuco- 

 spermiim. They are from the northern part of Cape Colony, 

 and were collected in 1896 by Schlechter in his " Iter secundum." 

 Also a specimen of Brabejum stellati folium, Linn., from Cape 

 Colony, received from Professor MacOwen, of Cape Town. This 

 species is particularly interesting to us from the fact that a 

 cultivated plant in the Sydney Botanic Gardens was described by 

 Mueller as Macadamia verticillata. (See Bentham & Hooker's 

 Genera Plantar um, iii. 178). Also fresh fruits of Ctrhera 

 OdoUarn, Gtertn., (C Manghu, Linn. ; C. lactaria, Ham.) from 

 New Caledonia. 



Mr. Edgar R. Waite, referring to some rats he had sent to the 

 Zoological Gardens in London, and to a paper he had contributed 

 to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society relative thereto, 

 drew attention to the fact that he had adopted W. S. Macleay's 

 specific name of arhoricola, but rejected the generic title of 

 Hapalotis for that of Mns. In a note appended to the paper, 

 Mr. Oldfield Thomas considers that the Sydney Bush Rat is 

 none other than a form of Mus rattus, and makes the interesting 

 statement that the rats normally inhabiting ships are not, as is 

 commonly supposed, Miis deciimanus, but Mus rattus. On June 

 30, 1897, Mr. Waite exhibited to the Society a living example of 

 a dark variety of the Sydney Bush-rat, and remarked its great 

 resemblance to typical examples of Mus rattus. 



