504 Forcian Notices. — Australasia. 



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wise distinguishable from, the English. They grow plentifully on the alluvial 

 banks of Hunter's River, and supply a yearly Christmas feast to the birds. 

 Our native currants are strongly acidulous, like the cranberry, and make 

 an excellent preserve when mixed with the raspberry. They grow on low 

 shrubs, not higher than the whortleberry bush. Our cherries are destitute 

 both of pleasant taste and flavour, and have the stone adhering to the outside. 

 Our native pears are tolerably tempting to the look, but defy both masti- 

 cation and digestion, being the pendulous seed-pods of a tree here, and their 

 outer husks of such a hard woody consistence, as to put the edge of even a 

 well-tempered knife to proof of its qualities in slicing them down. The 

 burwan is a nut relished by our natives, who prepare it by roasting and 

 immersion in a running stream, to free it from its poisonous qualities. The 

 jibbong is another tasteless fruit, as well as the five-corners, much relished 

 by children. The wild potato strongly resembles the species now in use in 

 Europe, but the stem and leaf are essentially different. It grows on the 

 loose, flooded, alluvial margins of the rivers, and at one period of the year 

 composes the chief sustenance of the natives, having the watery look and 

 taste of the yam. 



" Of foreign fruits now climatised, we possess a great variety. Here are 

 oranges, lemons, citrons, nectarines, apricots, peaches, plums, cherries, figs, 

 loquats, gi-anadillas, quinces, pears, apples, mulberries, pomegranates, grapes, 

 olives, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, guavas, pine-apples, and English 

 and Cape gooseberries and currants. Of shell fruits, we have the almond, 

 walnut, chestnut, and filbert ; and of other garden fruits, strawberries, 

 melons, peppers, &c. 



" Many of the small class of settlers derive a handsome income from the 

 proceeds of their gardens and orchards, but still this point is too little 

 attended to by our colonists generally, and many of our fruits are, conse- 

 quently, still both scarce and dear. I have never seen oranges selling for 

 less than a shilling a dozen ; while, a great part of the year, they are double 

 and treble this price, and not even to be had at all for some portion of the 

 season. Peaches, nectarines, and apricots are most abundant ; and, when 

 pains are taken in their cultivation, most delicious too ; but the greater por- 

 tion of those offered for sale, being the produce of seedlings, are generally 

 hard, tasteless, and noways so tempting as to induce you to try their flavour 

 a second time. Of apples we have considerable variety, many of them most 

 excellent ; while the pears you see for sale are generally of a large size, and 

 similar in look and taste to those of Madeira, rich, mellow, and juicy. The 

 bananas and guavas come only to perfection in low sheltered places near 

 the sea; and, in Captain Piper's garden at Eliza Point, I have tasted them 

 quite equal to those of the tropics. Pine-apples require the aid of a frame 

 for their filling out and ripening. Gooseberries and currants are not pro- 

 duced in the low land, the bushes all running to wood; but, in the cold 

 mountainous districts of Bathurst and Argyle, these fruits make near 

 approaches to perfection. The Cape gooseberry, however, forms a good sub- 

 stitute to the lowlanders for the others. Grapes flourish luxuriantly, but 

 are very liable to the blight, particularly the white ones, if not shaded from 

 the sun and westerly winds. Sir John Jamison considers this blight to be 

 occasioned by a concentration of the sun's rays by the dewdrop, as by a lens, 

 upon the grape, which is thus scorched, and decays rapidly, a series of black 

 specks spreading over it. I cannot myself see how these rays can produce 

 this effect, because the dew is always evaporated before they have much 

 power; while they could only affect the eastern side of the grape-bunch, or, 

 indeed, of the vine, the western being secure therefrom till the dew converts 

 into vapour. This blight is, more likely, attributable to the winds shifting 

 suddenly from hot to cold, or to the sun heating the grapes so much the 

 more during the day, if unshaded; and thus, from their being too hot at 

 night, they admit the cold au* and dew to have a proportionally stronger 



