72 



The Smith Australian Naturalist. 



erect, and the older ones lower down being broken and dry. As 

 they fall off, their fixed ends remain on the trunk. Frequently 

 a bush fire sweeps through the scrub and chars and blackens 

 the stem of the tree. 



During the winter season a flowering spike shoots out of the 

 leaves and grows rapidly. In one of our grass trees this spike 

 attains a height of 20 ft. It grows ver}^ rapidly, and although 

 at first it is tender and green, when it has ceased growing it 

 becomes hard and brown. The upper part — about one-third of 

 the whole spike — is the flowering end; the remainder is the 

 woody stem containing pith. In spring the upper part bursts 

 into hundreds of tiny white flowers, each yielding abundant 

 nectar or honey, which attracts insects and honey-eating birds. 

 In a brief time the flow^ers die off, and are succeeded by stiff- 

 pointed seed-coverings, and the stem becomes brown. Then the 

 seed-coverings open and shed their flat, hard, black seeds, from 

 which, if they have fallen on suitable soil, will spring other grass 

 trees. 



(A) Before and (B) after opening and shedding the seed (C). 



The grass tree belongs to the lily family. It seems difficult 

 to connect it with those beautiful Avhite flowers that are so much 

 admired in the garden. But we are likewise told that the onion, 

 and the so-called asparagus fern, are also members of the lily 

 family. 



The botanist, in his classification, relies mainly on the struc- 

 ture of the flowers. Let us examine a flower of the grass tree, 

 and as most of us will be unable to get one, we must use a 

 picture, or, rather, a diagram of the flower. The tiny flowers 

 are packed very closely on the flowering spike, but if we succeed 

 in separating one from its many companions we shall find that, 

 like all lilies, it has three sepals arranged outside, one being 

 between each of the three petals. Inside the whorl of petals 

 arise six stamens, and in the centre of all is the pistil, which at 

 its lower end swells out into the seed-box or ovary. If the ovary 

 be cut across it ^nll be found to contain, as is the rule w^ith most 

 members of the lily family, three compartments, in which the 

 seeds are formed. 



