BY THE TIEY. J. E. TEXISOX- WOODS, F.G.S. 571 



growth and over a very large extent of country I observed tliat 

 this was mainly composed of a thorny bush of the Apocynea3, 

 named Carissa ovata. The leaves are small and bright green 

 and the flowers are white, but quite inconspicuous. Unlike most 

 of the dogbanes, this little bush produces a very pleasant fruit 

 which is both agreeable and wholesome. It is like a Sloe, egg- 

 shaped and about half an inch long. It exudes a viscid milky 

 juice and contains a few woody seeds. Some persons are afraid 

 to indulge in these berries, no doubt owing to the bad character 

 of the order, which contains some of the most poisonous plants 

 known. I can however testify that the fruit of Carissa ovata is 

 both agreeable and wholesome, and I never knew an in-stance of 

 any evil consequences, even when they were partaken of most 

 abundantly. The fruit ripens in April, May, and June. It may 

 serve to allay the fears of some who are suspicious, to remind 

 them that the Cow-tree whose milky juice is so freely partaken 

 of by the natives of British (xuiana is one of the Dogbanes 

 (Tahcrnamoniana).^ 



Side by side with Brigalow we meet with two other species of 

 Acacia^ but they are not so abundant and never form more 

 than a minor ingredient of the scrubs. One is A. excclsa which 

 in the Treasury of Botany is the name sriven to Briiialow. Its 

 habit is quite different. Its leaves are green, somewhat pendulous 

 and the bark is black, but not furrowed in the manner of true 

 Brigalow. It may be easil}^ confounded with the other Acacia 

 wliich is found in these scrubs, namely A. saliciua. This is a 

 tree with long pendulous branches along which the rather small 

 ovate-lanceolate leaves hang down somewhat like the weeping 

 willow. The flowers are in little yellow globular heads, and the 

 bark though rough is less so than either of the other two species. 

 It is a pretty tree and forms by its drooping habit an agreeable 



* We have three speaies of this genus in North Queensland, one very 

 common and yielding an abundance of milky juice. 



