TILE SWAMP-OAK. 225 



Here and there they grow to an immense size, but you 

 generally see them ten to twelve feet high, growing 

 together in patches in the gullies and damp ground. 

 Inside the dead cone is a kind of pith, which makes 

 a famous wick for a " slush-lamp." It often happened 

 that we were out of candles in the bush, and we could 

 not run into the grocer's over the way, and buy a pound 

 just when we wanted; so we filled an old pauildn half 

 full of sand, stuck in one of these small honeysuckle 

 cones, melted a little fat, poured it on to the sand to fill 

 the pauikin ; lit the cone when it was hard, and this we 

 called a slush-lamp. 



The shey-oak is a prettier tree, but never grows to 

 any great size, has a wide-spreading top, and the leaves 

 are peculiar, being nothing more than long drooping 

 fibres. The shey-oak apple is a pretty kind of fruit, 

 resembling the cone of some of the species of pine, 

 but small and round ; it is bitter to the taste, and used 

 in flavouring the colonial beer. The wood is hard, makes 

 capital fires, and the root of the shey-oak is much used 

 by the Blacks in making their weapons, such as bome- 

 rangs, liangels, &c. 



The light or black wood tree is another pretty tree, 

 rarely grows to any large size, and the wood, for beauty 

 of grain and general utility, beats any in these forests. 

 The blossom is pale yellow, and has a beautiful scent, 

 much like that of the lilac. 



The swamp-oak is an elegant shrub, and put me much 

 in mind of the broom at home. The flower is yellow, and 

 Q 



