THE VALLEY OF THE MEW. 317 



and its line is marked by a belt of tangled brush 

 exceeding- in luxuriance anything of the same des- 

 cription which I had seen elsewhere. The variety 

 of trees in this dense brush is very great^ and many 

 were quite new to me. The Seaforthia palm attained 

 the height of 60 to 80 feet, and the rattan was very 

 abundant, and from the recurved prickles catching 

 and tearing the clothes, it was often no easy matter 

 to penetrate the thickets. Among the plants along 

 the river the most interesting is an indigenous species 

 of banana or plantain, probably the same as that 

 found at Endeavour River during Cook's first voyage. 

 The fruit is of small size with numerous hard seeds 

 and a small quantity of dehcious pulp ; cultivation 

 would, doubtless, wonderfully improve it. Another 

 remarkable plant found on the grassy borders of the 

 jungle and characteristic of rich damp soil is a beau- 

 tiful species of Roscoea {?), (one of the Scitaminese or 

 ginger family), about a foot high, with a solitary 

 leaf and large bractete, the lower green and the 

 upper ones pink, partially concealing handsome 

 yellow flowers. From its succulent nature I failed 

 in preparing specimens for the herbarium, but some 

 roots were preserved and given to the Botanical 

 Garden at Sydney. 



The lower part of the valley is open forest land, 

 or nearly level and thinly wooded country covered 

 with tall coarse grass. Further up it becomes more 

 beautiful. From the belt of wood, concealing the 

 windings of the river, grassy sloping- meadows extend 



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