685 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. R. T. Baker exhibited specimens of camphor and camphor 

 oil obtained from the leaves of Cinnaniomum Oliveri, Bail. The 

 yield of camphor is about ^ per cent. It resembles in odour and 

 appearance the ordinary camphor of commerce. Its melting 

 point was between 173-5 and 175, the melting point of ordinary 

 camphor being given as 175° C. Its specific rotation is also 

 almost identical with that of common camphor. The camphor 

 oil was obtained with the camphor, both floating on the surface 

 of the water, and was separated by pressure. The amount of oil 

 was equal to -364 per cent., but still retained some camphor in 

 solution. 



Mr. R. Etheridge, Junr., exhibited some drawings of undeter- 

 mined leaves, presumably of Tertiary age, from Rollo's Shaft, 

 Coolgardie, forwarded by the Government Geologist of West 

 Australia to Mr. H. Deane. Also specimens of leaves, at present 

 undetermined, from a quarry on the Diamantina River, near 

 Birdsville, a little over the Queensland and S. Australian border, 

 in the former Colony, lat. 25°55'S., and long. 138° 25' E. approxi- 

 mately. Mr. R. L. Jack states that Birdsville is " a Lower 

 Cretaceous locality, but it is quite possible that there are Desert 

 Sandstone Tablelands in the neighbourhood, and the plants may 

 come from one of these." 



Mr. Edgar R. Waite exhibited (1) examples of Typhlops 

 aluensis, Blgr., from Wai Obi, Vuna Pi, Fiji, where they are 

 known to the natives as "Naota." This species was previously 

 known only from the Solomon Islands, and the new record 

 supplies further evidence of the similarity of the faunas of the 

 two Archipelagoes. (2) A New Zealand Fish ( Nejjtotichthys 

 violaceus, Hutton) recently caught in Port Jackson and the first 



