665 



the Brisbane river towards a brook called Breakfast Creek, the waters 

 of which are generally brackish at high tide, several remarkable plants 

 were observed. 



" On the margins of the brook, Acrostichum fraxinifolium, a large ash-leaved fern, 

 was growing, along with Crinuin pedunculatum, a great bulbous-rooted plant, with 

 white, tubular, lily-like flowers. Hellenia caerulea, a reedy-lookiug plant, with broad 

 leaves and blue berries, and a species of Phytolacca, with pretty pink blossoms, were 

 among the brush-wood. By the sides of fresh-water ditches there were a Jussiaea, re- 

 sembling an evening primrose, with small yellow blossoms, and a blue-flowered plant, 

 in figure like a Pentstemon. On the grassy slope of the hills, near the river. Hibiscus 

 Fraseri, with yellow blossoms, like those of the hollyhock, but having a deep purple 

 eye, was in flower.'' — p. 359. 



And again, a forest, called Three-mile Scrub, visited on the 2nd of 

 April, seems to have been found replete with interest. 



" Some of the trees far exceed 100 feet in height, a few may be 150. Among the 

 lofty ones may be enumerated some Eucalypti, called iron-bark, forest-mahogany, &c. 

 and three species of fig, with leaves resembling those of laurel or Magnolia. One of 

 these, Ficus macrophylla, was forty feet in circumference at the greatest height that I 

 could reach : its roots formed wall-like abutments, extending from the tree, over an 

 area thirty feet across. These fig-trees are very remarkable in their growth : they of- 

 ten spring from seeds, deposited by birds in cavities of other trees, at elevations of, per- 

 haps, fifty feet or more. From these situations they send roots down to the ground, which, 

 in their course, adhere to the tree ; these again emit transverse or diagonal roots, that 

 fix themselves to others, in their course downward. Those that reach the ground 

 thicken rapidly, still spreading themselves upon the face of the foster tree, which, at 

 length, is completely encased. These gigantic parasites rear their towering heads 

 above all the other trees of the forest, sending out vast limbs, and spreading their own 

 roots in the earth, from which also they sometimes grow, without the aid of other trees 

 to sustain them. 



" The trunks and limbs of these, and other trees, support several species of fem, 

 and some epiphytes of the Orchis tribe, with fleshy leaves, and singular stems and 

 flowers. Numerous climbing plants, with stems varying in thickness, from that of 

 packthread to that of a man's body, ascend into their tops, and send down their branch- 

 es in graceful festoons. Among the slenderer climbers were two species of passion- 

 flower and one of jasmine. The most gigantic climber, which might properly be called 

 a climbing tree, belonged to a race of plants called Apocyneae : it had rugged bark, 

 and sometimes formed a few serpent-like wreaths upon the ground before ascending, 

 and spreading itself among the tops of the other trees. There were also three species 

 of Cissus ; one of them with simple, and the other two with trifoliate leaves : these are 

 kinds of vine, bearing grapes, about equal in size to English sloes, but sweeter. The 

 fruit of the figs is rather dry, but it is eaten by the native blacks and by numerous birds. 

 The Moreton Bay chesnut, CastanospeiTnum australe, is a fine tree, with a profusion 

 of flame-coloured blossom, and with leaves like those of the European walnut. Some 

 of its pods are ten inches long and eight round ; they contain several seeds, in size and 

 colour resembling horse-chesnuts, but, in flavour, between a Spanish chesnut and a 

 fiesh-ripened bean, with a slight degree of bitterness. The blacks roast them, and soak 



