SPECIALIAThe editors do not hold themselves responsible for the opinions expressed in the authors' brief reports. -Les auteurs sont seuls responsables des opinions exprimres dans ces brrves communications. -Ftir die Kurzmitteilungen ist ausschliesslich der Autor verantwortlich. -Per le brevi comunicazioni 6 responsabile solo l'autore. A. selaginoides 1 is confined to the mountainous regions of western Tasmania, where some specimens grow up to 40 m high and are over 1000 years old. Iia the field, foliage and bark samples gave moderately strong alkaloid tests, but after collection, the test rapidly became weaker and disappeared completely after a few days: it appeared that the alkaloids present were being destroyed by enzyme action. This effect could be minimized by roughly commi= nuting the freshly collected material as rapidly as possible, then soaking it in methanol for some days before extraction. The methanol extracts were worked up by standard means, and yielded 2 crystalline bases, alkaloid A, The PMR-spectrum of alkaloid A shows the presence of 2 methoxyl groups, and other data, including the IR and CMR spectra, indicate that the remaining 2 oxygens are in a lactone ring. The nitrogen is present in a tertiary amino group, since there are no exchangeable protons in the PMR spectrum and all 23 protons are accounted for as being attached to carbon in the CMR spectrum. The latter also gives evidence of 6 aromatic or olefinic carbons, 2 of which are quaternary; there is, however, only a I-proton signal, a singlet, in the aromatic region of the PMR spectrum, and a 1-proton multiplet in the olefinic region. Alkaloid B also gives spectroscopic evidence of the presence of 2 methoxyl groups, and the remaining oxygens are accounted for in an acetoxyl and hydroxyl group; the presence of the latter is confirmed by acetylation. Alkaline hydrolysis of alkaloid B affords a dihydroxy compound whichcan be reacetylated to a diacetoxy derivative isomeric but not identical with the above-mentioned O-acetyl alkaloid B.Structural studies on the Athrotaxis alkaloids are still in progress, but the spectroscopic and other evidence so far available suggest that they constitute a novel series of bases with no obvious structural relationship with those from other coniferous plants, such as cephalotaxine 4, pinidine s and taxine 6.