SCIENTIFIC EXCURSIONS IN NEW HOLLAND. 287 
peaks, south of the Bunya-range, and twenty English miles 
distant from the sea, each of them known to the natives by a 
distinctive appellation. The rock of the Puy de Dome and 
of Larconi is strikingly analogous to that of the glass-houses ; 
and it is a remarkable circumstance that the general aspect 
and configuration are also much alike. Is it not a curious 
fact that I have not been able to detect the least appearance 
of metals of any kind, nor of precious stones? I have often 
seen mica as bright as gold dust, but nothing else; as if 
science were determined I should serve no other master, nor 
reap other resources than hers! 
= But how can I adequately convey, in words, any idea 
of the Bunya brush, especially of that majestic tree, the 
Bunyia, whose trunk looks as if designed for a pillar to 
bear up the arch of heaven, and en the fruits of which, the 
blacks come every year to regale themselves for two or 
three months (January, February, and March). It were 
equally hard to describe the variety of plants and shrubs 
Which grow in this bush, covering, as it does, an extent upon 
the mountains equal to fifty English miles of length and 
breadth. The Castanospermum australe* grows both here and 
near the river and streams, often attaining the height of 
eighty to one hundred feet, and producing its little bunches 
of red and yellow flowers, which sprout out of the wood at 
the same time as its compound and deep green leaves are 
developed near the tips of the branches. 1 met with another 
tree, of the same family, on the mountain, and not among 
the brush ; its wood is very spongy, and the natives employ 
it to make their Aalimans or shields, the bark is covered 
With corky tubercles. "The flowers are large and red, and the 
foliage ternate, each leaflet being petiolate and triangular 
with the angles rounded. I think it is an Erythrina. 
There are two. other Leguminous trees in the Brush, one 
adorned with rich racemes of yellow blossoms, and the other 
belonging probably to the Mimosee : its leaves bipinnate, and 
the leaflets elliptic-lanceolate, larger towards the end than 
* See Hook. Bot. Miscellany, vol. 1, p. 241, t. 51 and 52 for a figure 
and description of this plant, — cad hee oe d 
