New Australian Plants. 77 



Osteocarpum. 



(Ferd. Mueller, Second Gen. Eeport, p. 15.) 



Flowers hermaphrodite, solitary, without bracteoles ; calyx 



minute, short toothed, at last indurated and one-ribbed ; 



stamens three ; anthers ovate ; styles two capillary, joint 



at the base ; caryopsis enclosed in the boney oblique 



globular calyx ; pericarp membraneous, distinct ; seeds 



horizontal, with a membraneous testa ; embryo periphe- 



rical, annular ; albumen central, mealy. 



A perennial glabrous procumbent plant of extra-tropical 



Australia, with numerous short semiterete leaves, with bearded 



axils and minute axillary flowers. 



A genus approaching to Sclerochlamys, Echinopsilon and 

 Threlkeldia. 



Osteocarpum salsuginosum. 

 (Ferd. Mueller, I.e.) 

 On the saline plains of Lake Torrens, the Darling and 

 Murray River. Also in eastern subtropical Australia, found 

 by Sir Thomas Mitehell^ 



Suajda tamariscina, Lindley in Mitch. Trop. Australia, is 

 in all likelihood referrable to this plant. 



ART. XI. — On the Introduction of the British Song Bird. By 

 Edward Wilson, Esq. 



[Read before the Institute, 4th July, 1857.] 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — Amongst the various 

 kinds of experiment to which I alluded in a Paper lately read 

 before the members of this Institution, there is scarcely one 

 possessed of more general features of a kind of elegant interest 

 than that of introducing into this colony some of the song birds 

 of England ; and of thereby relieving the comparative silence of 

 our woods and gardens. It seems probable that much might 

 be done hi this way, with a very trivial expenditure of either 

 money or trouble ; and if even in a single instance we could 

 achieve success, I think that we should thereby confer a very 

 signal benefit upon the colony at large. It may appear to some 

 a trivial thing to be devoting our efforts in such a direction, 



