82 BOTANICAL NOTES ON QUEENSLAND, 



I noticed here and there a few species of that beautiful member 

 of the Boraginece, viz. Corda myxa. It has dense clusters of a 

 pale yellow or pink fruit which is as viscid as birdlime, but eaten 

 sometimes by the children ; the flavour is not unpleasant. 



In the gum forests on the more open banks of the Burnett the 

 trees are principally E. teriticornis, Petalostigma quadriloculare. 

 Tristania conferta, JacJcsonia scoparia, and Melaleuca leucodendron, 

 All these are very abundant. Eucalyptus corymlom is in thick 

 sandy places when the undergrowth is of shrubby young plants 

 or stunted plants of all the preceding species. Here also are 

 found small species of Hahea rohusta, a most valuable as well as 

 beautiful timber tree, which has been with the exception of the 

 saplings entirely cleared off the ground. 



Wherever gravel from the river bed has been used along the 

 railway as ballast, there is a rather thick growth of Seshania 

 aculeata. The seeds of this plant are eaten by the natives. It 

 grows in all warm marshy places in Queensland. By many it is 

 thought that this'was the Nardoo which Burke and Wills thought 

 came from the spores of a Maisilea. It is hard to suppose that 

 any nourishment would be obtained from the spore-cases of the 

 latter plant or that the natives would use it. Besides this the 

 spore-cases are so few in number. 



The Fungi noticed by me on the Burnett were not numerous, 

 but I may mention having found very fine specimens of Hexagon 

 crinigera, Fr., on a dead trunk of a tree in the forest. The pileus 

 is covered with a coarse growth of branched bristles. It was 

 considered rare in Queenslani^ and the specimens small, but I 

 found 20 or 30 together all over four inches in diameter. The 

 ground in the neighbourhood was as thickly strewn as it could 

 be with dead shells of Helix CunningTiami and S. Incei. 



A tree held in great estimation here and not uncommon in the 

 forests, is the Myrtus gonoclada. The only drawback to it is that 

 the timber is so small, and the wood too hard to be worked with 



