244 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[OCTOBEE 1, 1897. 



Fl&. 5. — Seed-vessel or Fruit of the 

 Australian Wooden Pear. About four- 

 fifths of natural size. 



wag named after Sir Joseph Banks, whose part in the 



botanical exploration of 

 Australia I have already 

 mentioned. He brought 

 home specimens (which 

 are in the British 

 Museum) of four 

 species from New South 

 Wales and Queensland, 

 and they were described 

 by the younger Linnaus 

 in 17S1. Since then 

 upwards of forty other 

 species have been dis- 

 covered, more than 

 thirty of them in West 

 Australia. Quite 

 recently one of the 

 original four, B. dcntntn, 

 was collected in New 

 Guinea ; with this ex- 

 ception, the genus is, 

 so far as we know, 

 peculiar to Australia. 

 In 1788 Messrs. Lee 

 and Kennedy, famous 

 nurserymen of Ham- 

 mersmith, obtained 

 seeds of a number of 

 plants from Botany Bay, and it is recorded that the 

 seed of Dunksia scrrata was the very first to germinate. It 

 flowered about ten years later, and was figured in Andre^Y3's 

 " Botanist's Repository." 



The individual flowers of the Ba7il,xi(v, and indeed of 

 many other Proti'iict'o', bear some resemblance to our 

 honeysuckles, having recurved petals, and they also secrete 

 honey abundantly ; hence the early settlers applied the 

 name " honeysuckle " to the genus. 



An allied genus, Dri/amlra, comprising about fifty species, 

 quite restricted to West Australia, differs in having the 

 usually smaller heads of flowers surrounded by a ring of so- 

 called bracts, or modified leaves ; and as they usually have 

 divided prickly leaves they may be likened to shrubby thistles. 

 The accompanying illustrations represent some other 

 kinds of proteaceous seed-vessels and their seeds. Ilnheu 

 cnif^sifolid (Figs. 2 and 3) is a very remarkable one indeed. 

 The hard woody valves are nearly an inch in thickness, and 

 before the mechanism of the contractile tissue comes into 

 action to open them, they can only be separated by cutting or 

 by the employment of great force. The seed-vessel usually 

 contains two flattened seeds, face to face. The central 

 part of the seed, containing the embryo of the future 

 plant, is not much thicker than a sixpenny-piece, smooth 

 on the surface nest the other seed, and furnished on the 

 outer surface with prickles, which fit into corresponding 

 depressions in the woody fruit. Surrounding the centre' 1 

 nucleus of the seed is a wing-like expansion of tissue of 

 extreme thinness, difficult to represent in a drawing. The 

 shrub bearing this seed-vessel is a native of the sandy 

 plains skirting the Kalgan River, in West Australia ; acd 

 the genus liakm, which is a large one, .exhibits nearly as 

 wide a range of variety as F.ucahjptm. 



Fig. 4 is an example of the seed-vessel of a Queensland 

 species of the allied and still larger genus Grevillcu. It 

 strongly resembles a bivalve shell, and the seed is circular 

 with a marginal wing. 



The "wooden pear," Xijlomelum pi/riformc (Fig. 5), 

 gained its colonial name from its shape and consistence, 

 though it should be noted that it tapers upwards instead 



of downwards. There are four recognized species, the one 

 figured being a native of New South Wales, a second of 

 Queensland, and two of West Australia ; but they do not 

 differ widely from each other. It will be seen that the 

 seed has a terminal wing or membrane instead of a circular 

 one, and that the whole seed bears a strong resemblance 

 to one of the halves of a fruit of the sycamore or maple. 



It is probable that some readers of the foregoing notes 

 have read otherpopular accounts of the fruits of Australia in 

 which we are told that the Australian pear is wooden, and 

 that the Australian cherry has the stone outside. I have 

 shown that the former is a fanciful name ; and of the latter 

 (E.rdcai-pm) I may add that the fruit is a small stone with 

 a thin skin over it, and the stalk on which it is borne is 

 more or less fleshy ; but the whole thing is very small as 

 compared to a cherry. 



With regard to the economic value of the Pvoteacete, there 

 is not much to say. Few attain what may be called a timber 

 size, but the wood of a considerable number makes orna- 

 mental furniture, and that of others is useful and highly 

 valued for agricultural and other purposes. The bark of 

 some species of Banksin is occasionally used for tanning. 

 Resin or gum resin is yielded by various members of the 

 family, but its value has not been established. As food plants 

 they rank very low. Though honey is 

 produced in abundance, and greedily 

 sucked by the aborigines and children, 

 a reliable authority states that he never 

 resorted to it except in cases of extreme 

 thirst, because it invariably caused head- 

 ache. The seeds of many species are 

 eaten by the aborigines in times of need, 

 and the Queensland nut, iLicadamid 

 ternifolia, "is of excellent flavour, and 

 relished alike by aborigines and Euro- 

 peans, and is always eagerly bought." 

 Some that I have had in my own 

 possession for upwards of fifteen years 

 are still sound and sweet. The tree 

 bearing this nut is regarded as of so 

 much importance to the aborigines that 

 " timber getters " on the Government lands are not allowed 

 to fell it. The entire globular fruit consists of an outer 

 fleshy or leathery coat followed by a thick hard shell 

 enclosing the seed or kernel, which is about the size of a 

 large hazel nut. 



Of course, it is quite possible that future investigations 

 may bring to light more valuable products in this singular 

 family, and also means of more profitably utilizing some of 

 those as yet imperfectly known. 



South African Protcaccm were cultivated in Europe as 

 early as, if not earlier than, the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century. Boerhaave (" Index Alter Plantarum quas in 

 Horto Academico Lugduno-l^atavo aluntur, 1720") figures 

 about twenty-five species of Protiu and Leucadendron 

 cultivated in the Leyden Botanic Garden, under such 

 extraordinarily long names as Lovidocarpodendron and 

 H i/jiopliiillocii rpi idendron '. 



Fia. 6.— A Seed of 

 the Wooden Pear. 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE DOG. 



By R. Lydekker, F.R.S. 



THE number of breeds and varieties of the domesti- 

 cated dog is so great that it is at first rather hard 

 to believe that all are descended from a few wild 

 types. Nevertheless, the differences between 

 these are not greater than those met with among 

 domesticated pigeons and fowls, which are known to 



