667 



mixed with the cypress pine, Callitris arenosa ; and the sand on the 

 shore was bound together by maritime grasses, the large yellow-flow- 

 ered Hibbertia volubilis, and Ipomcea maritima, with its large, pink, 

 convolvulus-like flowers, and curious two-lobed leaves. On the mud- 

 dy land within the reach of high tides, were a species of mangrove 

 and a Bruguiera. 



*' The mangrove resembles a thick-leaved laurel, and has roots from its stem above 

 ground, like the stays of the mast of a ship : its fruit is about an inch in diameter, and 

 it vegetates as it hangs on the bush, and sends out a green radicle, about a foot long, 

 and swollen toward the pointed base; this, bearing the germ on its top, drops from the 

 fruit, and either sticks in the mud and vegetates, or floats in the sea, till landed on 

 some congenial spot, or till it perishes. The Bruguiera forms a fine bush, eight or 

 ten feet high, and has the bell-shaped cup to its evanescent petals in substance resem- 

 bling red morocco leather, and cut into ten narrow segments. Its mode of propagation 

 is similar to the former, but its radicle is shorter, and not swollen towards the base. 

 These gay, red-leather-like flowers, and long, green, spindle-like radicles, were washed 

 up abundantly on the shore, and till I saw them growing, they puzzled me not a lit- 

 tle."— p. 375. 



On Moreton Island the same plants occurred, together with a Scae- 

 vola, with brilliant blue flowers and black berries. In the sandy pla- 

 ces more inland, " Pandanus pedunculatus, a species of screw pine, 

 forms a singular tree, fifteen feet high. Its leaves resemble those of 

 the pine-apple ; its fruit is as large as a child's head, yellow, and com- 

 posed of clustered oblong nuts, fleshy at the base, which separate in 

 attached groups when ripe. The fleshy part is eaten by the blacks ; but 

 it has an unpleasant smell, and though sweetish, is rather acrid. The 

 trunk is supported securely by roots, that descend from various parts of 

 it, into the sand, and are as thick and straight as broom-sticks ; they 

 look rather like the stays of a ship." Some steep sand hills "were over- 

 grown by Myrtus tenuifolia, a myrtle of low stature, with naiTow 

 leaves, and sweet, aromatic, white berries, spotted with purple. These 

 are the most agreeable native finiit I have tasted in Australia ; they 

 are produced so abundantly as to aff'ord an important article of food 

 to the aborigines." Near the east coast was a yellow Crotalaria, and 

 three species of ferns, Lygodium microphyllum, Pteris esculenta and 

 Blechnum cartilagineum. 



At Newcastle, where he appears in the first instance to have been 

 driven by stress of weather, on his return to Sydney from Moreton 

 Bay, our traveller observed that many open places in the forests 

 abounded with gigantic lily, from ten to twenty feet in height. The 

 stems of this plant, at a foot and a half high, are thicker than a man's 

 arm ; they are roasted and eaten by the natives. The roots of this 



