IG NOTHS ON TH1<: VEGETATION OF NEW (HIINEA. 



shrubs from ^a Inch they had fallen. INIany, doubtless, had been 

 l)ron,£;ht down the river and washed up by the tides. At the 

 time of our visit a fruit closely resembling, in colour and shape,, 

 an orange, wa.s very abundant. This proved to belong to 

 TaberniPmontana aurantiaca, (iaxd. The Howers of tliis plant 

 Avere afterwards obtained at the Musa River. Another interest- 

 ing fruit was a large tig which grew in clusters. The larger 

 fruits measured 2^in. in diameter, on stalks fully l^in. long. In 

 shape it somewhat resembled a bergamot pear, only that the top 

 was deeply concave. The colour Avhen fresh was greenish- 

 brown, with numerous rather broad, red, longitudinal stripes. 

 There were also fruits of several palms, one of which — probably 

 belonging to Orania aruensis, Ihrc — was a round red ball, 

 about 2in. or Bin. in diameter. Among the flowers picked up 

 were some of an Ekeocarpus, which w^ere often quite perfect ;. 

 thus I was enabled to make out the following description, which 

 may assist in identifying the species when some one more fortu- 

 nate than I may meet with the tree. The individual flower 

 reminds one of the North Queensland species E. Bancroftii, 

 Jldil., the Johnstone River almond — sepals five, white, lanceo- 

 late, ^in. long ; petals five, yellowish with a tinge of green, 

 cuneate, about an inch long, ending in three broad crenulate 

 teeth ; texture thick, stamens numerous, filaments shortly hairy ; 

 anthers long, opening in a terminal pore, and furnished with a, 

 long and a short (or sometimes only one) bristle ; ovary velvety, 

 style subulate, nearly as long as the corolla. Here, as in many 

 other parts of the coast, the common shea-oak, Casuarina equi- 

 setifoliaj Foist., forms a graceful upright tree of 60 or more 

 feet, which from the deck of the Merrie England had all the 

 appearance of cypress pines. I noticed also that in this locality 

 our common coast tree. Hibiscus tiliaceus, Liiot. — " Talwalpin " 

 of the INIoreton Bay natives — forms tall erect trunks. Among 

 the climbing plants which were weighing down the shrubs I 

 observed here and there plants of a form very near the normal 

 of Mucuna pruriens, IX.'., the coAvhage, besides others of the 

 same genus. At the Ope River some of the party brought on 

 board the steamer a specimen of the " green-light fungus," 

 Hiatula Wynnife, />'. (dkI Br. This beautiful object gave out its. 



