Ian R. Thompson

Phylogenetic Studies of the Tribe Brongniartieae (Fabaceae) Using Nuclear DNA (ITS-1) and Morphological Data

Abstract Nuclear DNA sequence data (Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 of the 45S rDNA cistron) and morphological data were used for phylogenetic studies of the tribe Brongniartieae (Fabaceae), a tribe of four Australian and two tropical American genera. Alignment of the ITS-1 region was largely unambiguous and the phylogeny produced using parsimony methods had a high consistency index. Morphological data were mostly congruent with the molecular data and were informative for some nodes where molecular data were lacking. Combining molecular and morphological data resulted in a well-resolved phylogeny. Analyses confirm the monophyly of the tribe and show that the American genus Brongniartia is more closely related to Australian genera than to Harpalyce, the other American genus in the tribe. There is evidence that the Australian genus Plagiocarpus is related to Brongniartia. Templetonia is polyphyletic. Templetonia biloba, T. incana, and Lamprolobium form a monophyletic group. Analyses also support the recognition of three groups within the Australian endemic genus Hovea. Communicating Editor: John V. Freudenstein

Morphometric Analysis and Revision of Eastern Australian Hovea (Brongniartieae-Fabaceae)

Eastern Australian forms of the Australian endemic genus Hovea R.Br. have proved taxonomically difficult. A morphometric analysis of eastern forms, excluding the morphologically distant Hovea longipes Benth., is presented. This analysis provides the basis for a taxonomic revision and keys, which are also presented here. Of the 31 species recognised, the following 17 species are described here as new: H. angustissima, H. asperifolia, H. clavata, H. cymbiformis, H. densivellosa, H. graniticola, H. impressinerva, H. lorata, H. magnibractea, H. nana, H. nitida, H. parvicalyx, H. pedunculata, H. similis, H. speciosa, H. tasmanica, and H. tholiformis. A new subspecies, H. asperifolia ssp. spinosissima, is also described. Hovea ramulosa A.Cunn. ex Lindl., H. apiculata A.Cunn. ex G.Don and H. heterophylla A.Cunn. ex Hook.f. are reinstated as species.

Assessing speech and communication impairments in cognitive disorders: an innovative development in a memory clinic.

Although there is a great emphasis on memory in the diagnosis of dementia and in the measurement of treatment response, disorders of language are an important, but sometimes neglected, feature of many dementias. In 2005 the Academic Unit for the Psychiatry of Old Age of the University of Melbourne was located at St. George’s Hospital in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. In association with the Unit’s Memory and Related Disorders Clinic (MRDC), the Inner East Community Health Service (IECHS) established a Speech and Communication Clinic (SCC). The purpose of the collaboration was to provide an innovative service to the older members of the community. The SCC was initiated following another joint project (Goh et al., 2008), a training program for commercial service providers who deal with elderly citizens in the suburban community of Boroondara, a local government administrative area in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It is one of the oldest established municipalities in the Melbourne metropolitan area. It houses a predominantly professional class, has the fourth highest mean income (Australian Taxation Office, 2006–7), has 27,000 people aged over 60 years, or 16% of its population, and the largest number of residents over 85 years in the state of Victoria. The program provided education to representatives of agencies with the aim of improving practices and attitudes to their aging clientele. A set of ten principles were subsequently documented in a Charter and made available to all participants and presented to the municipal council.