PREFATORY AND OTHER NOTES. 5 



The known wholesome species of Fungi are marked " Edible" ; 

 this does not imply that they are all used for food in Queensland, 

 but that they have been or are so used in other countries. In 

 all cases where blight-fungi are mentioned the names of the hosts 

 or plants they usually infest are also given ; and as Bordeaux 

 mixture is the usual remedy in these cases its composition is here 

 given : — " 4 lb. sulphate of copper, 4 lb. of fresh lime, 40 gallons 

 of water. Dissolve the copper in, say, 5 gallons of water in a 

 wooden vessel ; the best way is to tie it in a loosely woven bag, 

 and suspend the bag from a stick laid across the tub ; or, if in a 

 hurry, use hot water. Slake the lime in another vessel, and add it 

 to the copper solution ; stir well till thoroughly mixed, then add 

 sufficient water to bring the whole up to 40 gallons. Now strain 

 out any dirt. The addition of 3 lb. of treacle makes the mixture 

 more adhesive, and should be used if clamp weather is feared." — 

 Kirk. 



Where plants are designated varieties I do not consider it 

 correct to suppose that all or any great proportion of such 

 deviations are the effect of cross-fertilisation, especially in the 

 indigenous plants ; it would be better that they should be looked 

 upon rather as sports having nothing whatever to do with sexuality. 

 Cross-fertilisation may, and in all probability does, play a principal 

 part in causing the varieties of plants like the melon, pumpkin, 

 cabbage, turnip, &c, as well as various garden flowers, while many 

 of these may have originated from sports. That sports may 

 originate from the seed is, I think, shown in the matter of the 

 dwarf China Scarlet Peach. Among seedlings of this plant it is 

 not uncommon to find some of a very dwarf, spreading, bushy 

 habit, which have the flowers and fruit of the parent, and are 

 perfectly healthy as a rule, and are, in my opinion, sports, not 

 hybrids ; and these we find are commonly perpetuated by means 

 of budding and grafting for the sake of their so-called double 

 Dlooms as well as the colour of the flowers, and it may be that all 

 the tall-growing double-flowering kinds have originated from a 

 dwarf one in China many years back. The first I can remember 

 of these sports were among some plants raised in 1844 from stones 

 borne by a tree brought out to South Australia by my father in 



