666 



them in water, to prepare them for food. Acrostichum grande, one of the ferns that 

 grow on the trees, is as large as a full-grown Scotch cabbage, and is remarkably beau- 

 tiful. Caladium glycirrhizon, a plant allied to the Arum, and one of the race called 

 Tara, the roots of which afford food to the islanders of the Pacific, abounds in these 

 woods. The root is beaten and roasted by the aborigines, till it is deprived of its acri- 

 mony ; it is then eaten, and is said to be pleasant to the taste. In the margins of the 

 woods, and on the banks of the rivers, the climbers are also numerous, and very beau- 

 tiful. Among them are Tecoma jasminoides, a large, white trumpet-flower, with a ro- 

 sy pink tube, and Ipomoea pendula, before noticed as bearing elegant, pink, convolvu- 

 lus-like blossoms. In the grass of the open ground is a remarkable climbing nettle, 

 and in the forests, the giant nettle, Urtica gigas, forms a large tree. Many of the hills 

 in this neighbourhood are dry, and covered with quartzose gravel. On these, the trees 

 are chiefly of the genera Eucalyptus, Tristania, Casuarina and Acacia. In the basal- 

 tic soils Altingia Cunninghamii, the Moreton Bay pine, is interspersed ; and in some 

 places, further into the interior, it forms large woods." — p. 361. 



On the 4th of April our traveller visited Eagle Farm, a settlement 

 six miles from Brisbane Town towards the mouth of the river of the 

 same name. On the way he noticed a beautiful Pavonia, with a rosy 

 purple blossom, shaded deeply towards the centre ; also a splendid 

 Loranthus, with foliage like that of a lemon, and clusters of crimson 

 tubular flowers tipped with yellow. The beautiful blue Ipomoea he- 

 deracea was also in blossom. 



" In a wood, on the margin of the river, a few miles above Brisbane Town, I met 

 with a species of lime. Citrus, having small diversified leaves, and fruit the size of a 

 walnut ; it formed a tree fifteen feet high. Flindersia australis, Oxleya zanthoxyla, 

 and Cedrella Toona ? trees of the same tribe as the mahogany, attain to a large size 

 in these forests. Oxleya zanthoxyla is the yellow wood of Moreton Bay: one I mea- 

 sured, was forty feet round at about five feet up : it was supposed to be one hundred 

 feet high. The Cedrella is the cedar of N. S. Wales ; the wood of which resembles 

 mahogany, but is not so heavy. The silk oak, Grevillea robusta, also forms a large 

 tree : its foliage is divided, like that of some Umbelliferous plants ; its flowers are 

 somewhat like branched combs, of crooked yellow wire, shaded into orange, and are 

 very handsome. Hoya Brownii, and Jasminum gracile? were abundant on the bank of 

 the river, along with Tecoma jasminoides, and many other curious and beautiful 

 climbing shrubs. Eleven epiphytes, of the Orchis tribe, were growing on the trunks 

 of the trees in the forest. Most of these were of the genera Dendrobium, Cymbidium 

 and Gunnia. Some bananas, which had been washed from a place in the limestone 

 country above, where sheep, for the provision of the settlement, are kept, had establish- 

 ed themselves on the borders of a creek. Pumpkins were growing among the brush- 

 wood, in great luxuriance. The last were observed, with evident pleasure, by my boat's 

 crew of prisoners, who anticipated making a meal of them, at a future day. They are 

 much used as a table vegetable, in New South Wales, and are certainly to be valued 

 as such, in this climate ; they keep well, and are a good substitute for potatoes, or for 

 turnips, by land or by sea." — p. 364. 



The forest about the Pilot's station, situated at the north point of 

 Stradbroke Island, consists of Eucalyptus, Melaleuca and Banksia, 



