112 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Upper Murchison River, Western Australia, where it was collected 



by Mr. Isaac Tyson. 



Acacia Tvsoni, Luehmann (section, uninerves brevifolioe). 



Branchlets nearly terete, densely tomentose ; phyllodia oblong, 

 slightly oblique, with a small hooked point, narrowed at the base, 

 about i inch long, 3 to 4 lines broad, ashy-grey, covered with a 

 fine silky pubescence, one-nerved with thickened margins, the 

 lateral veins concealed, without marginal glands. Peduncles 

 solitary, fully as long as the phyllodia, bearing each a globular 

 head of 10 or 12 rather large flowers, mostly 5-merous. Calyx 

 turbinate, glabrous, about one-third as long as the corolla ; petals 

 smooth, connate to above the middle. Pod straight, hard, and 

 woody, very turgid (broken, so that the length cannot be stated), 

 about 3 lines broad over the seeds, much contracted between 

 them. Seed nearly 3 lines long, 2 lines broad and almost as 

 thick, but laterally compressed, the funicle short, not folded, 

 thickened into a fleshy aril. 



Nearest to A. Meissneri and its allies. 



On limestone soil in the vicinity of Mount Narryer, Upper 

 Murchison River, Western Australia ; Isaac Tyson. 



The Extinct Phillip Island Parrot. — A correspondent 

 in the Zoologist states that a hitherto unrecorded specimen of the 

 Phillip Island Parrot (Nestor productus ) has been found in a 

 collection of birds belonging to the city of Birmingham, now kept 

 in the Museum at Aston Hall. As there are only about a dozen 

 specimens of this now extinct bird in existence, any museum 

 possessing one may be considered fortunate. These Nestor 

 Parrots of which the Kaka (N. meridionalis) and the Kea ( N. 

 notabilis) still survive in the unsettled districts of New Zealand, 

 show a considerable resemblance in several points to the birds of 

 prey, and are probably survivals of a primeval race of parrots 

 that existed before the two families had so widely diverged as at 

 present from some common ancestor. A figure of the Nestor 

 productus is given by Prof. Newton in his article on birds in the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th edition), page 735, where he 

 remarks : — " The last known living specimen, according to 

 information supplied to me by Mr. Gould, was seen by that 

 gentleman in a cage in London about the year 185 1." [The Phillip 

 Island after which this bird is named is a small islet near Nor- 

 folk Island. Is there a specimen of this parrot in any Australian 

 Museum 1 — Ed. Victorian Naturalist.] 



We are pleased to learn that Mr. J. G. Luehmann, F.L.S., 

 who was for nearly thirty years associated with the late Baron 

 von Mueller in the Government Botanist's Department as his 

 principal assistant, has been appointed Curator of the Melbourne 

 Herbarium. 



