176 notes on the fructification of the bunya, 



Notes on the Fructification of the Bunya. 

 By the Honorable James Norton. 



In August, 1881, it was noticed for the first time in this colony 

 at Ecclesbourne, Double Bay, and subsequently at Fernhill, 

 Mulgoa, and also in the Queensland Gardens, that the Bunya 

 (Araiicaria Bidwellii) which had freely produced infertile cones 

 for many years had then commenced to produce male catkins in 

 abundance. 



The tree which produced catkins in my own garden has since 

 ripened several cones which are now falling filled with fertile nuts. 



It is singular that the cones were all formed at a greater height 

 in the tree than the catkins which were to fertilise them, and that 

 the fruit should take so long a period of time (at least eighteen 

 months) to come to perfection. 



I have collected more than a bushel of the nuts, and one of 

 them having been planted by a boy by way of experiment 

 immediately germinated, but as the boy unwittingly placed the 

 large end in the soil the root is at present growing upwards in the 

 air. 



The question whether the tree is monoecious or dioecious is now 

 therefore beyond a doubt. In another part of the garden, at 

 about eighty yards distance, I have nine other specimens of this 

 tree, but these have never produced catkins, and out of fifty-one 

 cones formed by them this year I have only obtained about 

 twenty-six fertile nuts, while the tree first mentioned has produced 

 nearly 1000. 



I may here mention that two out of the three fertile nuts 

 ripened by these trees, in 1881, before the appearance of the 

 catkins in this colony, are growing and in a healthy condition, 

 but as yet no difference can be perceived between them and the 

 ordinary unhybridized plants though there can be little doubt that 

 they are the result of fertilisation by some other Araucaria. 



It may be interesting to botanists to state here that Pinus 

 insignis is now producing cones freely. Although for several 



