133 



NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC BOTANY— No. II. 



By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., &c., 

 Curator of the Technological Museum. 



FOODS. 



Adansonia Gregorii, F.v.M. N.O. Malvaceae. The "Bottle- 

 tree "* of N. W. Australia. 



From Mr. J. Pentecost, who spent some months in the 

 Kimberley district, I learnt the following particulars in regard to 

 these singular trees. Two or three were usually seen at a time, 

 with a long interval. The fruits are rather larger than an emu 

 egg (one in my possession has its diameters six and four inches 

 respectively). The blacks, and Europeans too, chew the slightly 

 acidulous pith or pulp. The seeds embedded in this pithy pulp 

 taste like hazel nuts, and are a favourite food of the blacks. So 

 valuable are these trees to them that they never notch the trunks 

 nor injure the trees in any way in their pursuit of the fruit, as 

 they do in the case of other trees. 



Cocos nucifera, Linn. N.O. Palmae. " Coco-nut " 



This is a tree specially protected by enactments of the Queens- 

 land Parliament in the interests, chiefly, of the aboriginals and 

 Polynesians. Legislation of this kind is so rare in the colonies 

 that I have gathered some information in regard to this particular 

 instance. Mr. Lewis Bernays, F.L.S., Clerk of the Parliaments, 

 Brisbane, kindly informed me that the Acts referred to are the 

 Pearl-shell and Beche-de-mer Fishery Act of 1881, and also its 

 Amendment Act of 1886. Through his kindness in forwarding 



* For a fine plate, and excellent description of this tree, see J. R. 

 Jackson in The Student, July, 1868. 



