125 
sjDongj and insij^id. Another Eugenia (_27. oleosa) bears a lovely 
bright-blue fruit, that would have a charming effect in the decorating 
of a banquet hall, or ballroom or evening party. The Helicia Whelani, 
named by Bailey after Sergeant "Whelan, bears a large nut, extensively 
used for food by the blacks, in whose camp we found the shells or 
whole nuts in considerable quantities. It is roasted and eaten without 
any maceration in water, apparently containing no poisonous principle. 
Chief of all the fruits is the Garcima Mestoni, or Meston's Maugosteen, 
already described in a previous article. Mr. Soutter, of the Acclima- 
tisation Gardens, is now trying to germinate the seeds of this and two 
other large fruits, at present unnamed, as only the seeds were found 
on the recent expedition. The true nutmeg grows everywhere in 
abundance, and forms the favourite food of the Straits pigeons when 
down for the breeding season. It is smaller than the nutmeg of 
commerce, but exactly the same in all other respects. Botanically the 
name is Myristica insipida. 
Referring to my mangosteen, I find that among the plants collected 
by D'Albertis on the My River in 1877 there is only one G-arcinia, 
named G. suhtilinervis by Von Mueller, and also only one Chavica of the 
Piperacese or Long Pepper family. Our expedition also discovered only 
one Garcinia and one Piper, both named after myself. [Gradually I 
am being seized by a fearful suspicion that Science is sending me 
careering down to posterity like a human comet launched through the 
astral universe of immortality, with such an appalling and apparently 
interminable tail of luminous scientific appendages, that my des- 
cendants will one day, while smarting under a keen sense of unendur- 
able orthographical outrage, rush round to the Registrar- General with 
a legally compiled document intimating that from thenceforth and for 
ever they have altered their name to " Jones."] 
About twenty years ago a writer in one of the English magazines 
gravely informed the inhabitants of this planet "that in Australia 
there are no edible wild fruits, no flowers with perfume, or birds with 
song." Probably no other human ass ever compressed a larger and 
more varied assortment of reckless ignorance into a smaller amount of 
space. Yet the gospel according to that literary cuddy is still accepted 
by the section of the old country inhabitants whose opinions on 
Australia are about as lucid and valuable as a native bear's theory 
concerning religion in State schools. 
All over Australia are palatable wild fruits, many pleasantly 
scented flowers, and birds that sing or whistle as sweetly as any in 
the world, the nightingale alone excepted. 
Nearly all of the flowers of the tropic north are perfumed, some 
of them diffusing a delightful odour. The Dracophyllum of Wooroo- 
nooran bears one of the most magnificent flowers in the world. Some 
of the orchids bear deliciously fragrant flowers, and on the summit of 
the mountain is a handsome shrub bearing a small white flower with a 
fascinating scent, such as I never met with before. The specimens of 
this were lost. 
Among the perfume-bearing plants is Ihe Orites fragrans, named 
by Bailey, who describes it as " a most attractive plant from the rich 
colour and fragrance of the inflorescence." The same sentence applies 
exactly to one of the Holland^eas found on the mountain, according to 
Bailey, " a most desirable tree for garden culture." One very hand- 
some tree is named Otjanocarpus Nortoniana^ after the Hon. A. Norton, 
