It is
reported that Gaudichaud was correct in describing, under Brachycome Cass., three species,
B. triloba, B. dentata and B. spathulata. Reference is made to the nomenclatural status of
these species in accordance with the results of a revision of Brachycome by Davis (1948). De
Candolle erred in transferring the species to Vittadinia A. Rich, for which the New Zealand
V. australis is the type. Reasons are given for regarding V. triloba (Gaudich.) DC. as
synonymous with V. australis var. dissecta Benth., and the variety is raised to specific rank.
Included with V. australis and V. dissecta in Vittadinia s. str. (i.e. in Vittadinia subgenus
Vittadinia) are V. cuneata DC. (a name which can be applied to a complex group of taxa
widespread in southern and eastern Australia) and a further 17 species of which the
following are new: V. cervicularis (with four varieties), V. constricta, V. condyloides, V.
decora, V. eremaea, V. humerata, V. nullarborensis, V. pustulata, V. simulans and V. sulcata,
while V. gracilis (J. D. Hook.) N. Burbidge and V. australasica (Turcz.) N. Burbidge
are new combinations. V. scabra DC. and a group of taxa which have been referred to it
or, incorrectly, to V. macrorhiza (DC.) A. Gray have been placed in a new subgenus
of Vittadinia under the name Peripleura. Within this subgenus nine species are recognized:
V. scabra DC., V, hispidula F. Muell. ex A. Gray (with two varieties), and the new
species V. arida, V. bicolor, V. diffusa, V. obovata, V. sericea, V. spechtii (with two varieties)
and V. virgata. With the exception of V. australis which is endemic to New Zealand and V.
simulans, a New Caledonian species, all are endemic to Australia; however, V. hispidula has
been reported for New Caledonia where it is deemed to be an alien and V. gracilis and
possibly V. muelleri appear to have become naturalized in New Zealand. V. brachycomoides
(F. Muell.) Benth. becomes the type of a new genus, Camptacra, with two species, both
distributed in northern and north-eastern Australia. Eurybiopsis DC. is reinstated, with its
single species, E. macrorhiza DC., found only in northern Australia.
A new genus and species of eomysticetid (Cetacea: Mysticeti) and a reinterpretation of ‘Mauicetus’ lophocephalus Marples, 1956: transitional baleen whales from the upper Oligocene of New Zealand
