632 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. R. T. Baker exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Hugh Dixson, 

 specimens of Vanilla [Vanilla jjlayiifolia, And.) grown by that 

 gentleman at his private residence at Summer Hill, near Sydney. 

 The pods appeared to have been quite successfully cured, as they 

 possess all the characteristics of the commercial article, and the 

 aroma and shining surface in no way seemed to differ from those 

 of the true Mexican Vanilla. One vine yielded about 50 pods. 



Mr. R. Greig Smith showed cultures in various media of the 

 Bacillus described in his paper; also samples of the gum, levan. 



Mr. North communicated the following Note. The bird named 

 Motacilla cyanea^ \yy Ellis, was met with during the stay of 

 Captain Cook's vessels, the " Resolution " and " Discovery," in 

 January, 1777, at Adventure Bay, Bruni Island, near the south- 

 east coast of Tasmania. At that time Bass Strait had not been 

 discovered, and the latter island was regarded as the southern 

 extremity of Australia, and is so figured by Ellis, who was 

 assistant-surgeon to both vessels, on the chart accompanying his 

 work, published in 1782. The name of Malurus cyaneus, Ellis, 

 will, therefore, have to stand for the Tasmanian species of Superb 

 Warbler, and that of Malurus superbus, Shaw, for the well known 

 species inhabiting south-eastern Australia. Mr. North also 

 pointed out that several species of Cuckoos were unusually 

 numerous this season in the neighbourhood of Sydney. During 

 the present month he had found four nests of the Rock Warbler, 

 Origma rubricata, three of which each contained an egg, and the 

 fourth a young Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Cacomantis flabelliformis, 

 Lath. He also found an egg of this Cuckoo in the nest of 

 Lambert's Superb Warbler, Malurus lamberti, Vig. and Horsf., 

 and from another nest of the latter species obtained an egg of 

 the Rufous-tailed Bronze Cuckoo, Lamiirococcyx basalis, Horsf. 

 Previously the eggs of both these species of Cuckoo had not been 

 recorded from the nests of Lambert's Superb Warbler. 



The President showed some drawings and actual specimens of 

 types of Eucalypts referred to in his paper. 



