BEACH PLANTS 63 



with its big leaves, soft of surface when young, but 

 harsh and coarse at maturity. The golden flowers, 

 grouped in huge heads, are rich in nectar, attracting 

 birds and butterflies by day and flying foxes at night. 

 The fruit, enclosed in a crisp capsule, is tough and 

 leathery, in shape a flattened oval, and is entirely 

 covered with silken seeds lying close and dense as the 

 feathers of the grebe. When numbers of the capsules 

 open simultaneously, the seeds float earthwards like 

 a silvery mantle or stream before the wind like a veil. 

 Rarely the capsule falls to the ground complete, and 

 then the parting of the valves reveals the fruit, in form 

 not unhke a small fish covered with glistening scales. 

 The soft white wood is generally condemned, but dulj^ 

 seasoned it becomes tough, and is durable when not 

 exposed to the weather. Like other quick-growing 

 trees, the Gin-gee takes no long time in arriving at 

 maturity, and its life is comparatively brief. Often 

 big trees die from no apparent cause, and the wood 

 becoming dry and tindery, the limbs crash to the 

 ground suddenl}^, and in a few months the whole sub- 

 stance disappears in dust and mould. 



Though the flowering season of the Calophyllum is 

 of the past, the tree which bestows on the beaches 

 the deepest shade and is handsome in all its parts must 

 not be disregarded, for does it not, ever and anon, 

 strive after a higher purpose than the production of 

 goodly leaves, white flowers, and nuts "harsh and 

 crude" ? On rare occasions the external covering of 

 the nut turns yellow on the tree, and is then found to 

 enclose a thin envelope of pulp of aromatic and rather 

 gratifying flavour. Such a phenomenon seems to 

 manifest inherent excellencies, a laudable effort towards 

 self-improvement, a plea for assistance on the part of 

 some approving and patient man, an indication of the 



