136 



Aster (?) coNocEPHALrs, F. v. M. — This composite has been 

 collected by me in a hitherto unrecorded district, namely, the 

 Tickera Scrub, a few miles north from Wallaroo. There it 

 grows abundantly, but not gregariously, on the sandier parts 

 of the detritus from the granitoid felstones. Mr. Bentham 

 notes that the species is an anomalous one in the genus, differing 

 '' in the anthers being quite free in all the flowers I examined, 

 in its long and narrow but flattened style branches, and in the 

 absence of ray florets." As the result of an examination of 

 many specimens, the stamens are syngenesious, not free. — H. 

 Tate. 



Claytonia Balonnensis, Lindley. — " This plant is very 

 much like what we call here pig's face {Mesemhryanthemum 

 austmle), so Mr. "Warman told me, and is considered good 

 eating with bread. The blacks also use this plant for food, 

 mixed with baked bark." — Annie F. Hichards. 



Sarcostemma australe, H. Broion. — " This asclepiad I found 

 in a new locality, very far south of any previously known, viz., 

 on the slopes of the granitoid-felstone cliffs facing the sea, 

 about Tickera, Section 92 in the Hundred of the same name. 

 Here, however, its habit is that of a shrub two to three feet 

 high with erect branches, whereas in the Flora Australiensis it 

 is described as a twiner. At the time of my visit, Nov. 19, it was 

 just blossoming, but ripe fruits were gathered by Mr. Cloud 

 about a month afterwards. Mr. J. Dixon informs me that he 

 had not known stock to touch this plant till the past summer 

 (1880-1) , when the cattle on the Eastern Plains lived upon it, 

 without water, for some months of continued drought." — R. 

 Tate. 



SoLANUM HTSTRix, B. Browu. — "The native name of this 

 plant is ' walga.' The blacks use the fruit for food, but only 

 with the pounded and baked bark of the mallee root called 

 ' congoo' by them. Before using the fruit they take off the 

 shell (the dry prickly calyx) and remove the seeds. This 

 leaves a pulpy skin about the thickness of that of a native 

 peach ; the fruit and bark are then made into a cake. When 

 fruits are not obtainable, and they are otherwise hard pressed 

 for food, the natives bleed themselves in the arm and use the 

 blood with the bark. The natives told me, when opening the 

 fruit for the seeds, not to eat the fruit, as it would make my 

 throat sore, nor yet to touch my eyes with my fingers. The 

 fine prickles and juice got into my fingers, and produced a 

 good deal of pain and inflammation for a short time. The 

 plant droops as soon as gathered, and the leaves wither very 

 much in drying ; the flowers are at first dark lavender, but 

 after a time become quite white ; the seeds are of a black or 



