BANKSTA PYR IFOR MIS. 
their appetites, than their teeth themselves, on 
the occasion since nothing but the ahiiost 
iron bill of the cockatoo, or parrot, could 
possibly find any thing eatable in them. 
It was in vain, too, that they indulged 3 
faint hope of what the mellowing hand of 
tim.e, might efFe6l in the amelioration of this 
deceptive fruit, which for ever remains impe- 
netrable by the human tooth. * Yet the seed,, 
which is winged, is not found unpleasant in 
flavour ; and, when the pear is ripe, the fer~ 
vour of the sun soon splits the ligneous part, 
as it appears in the annexed figure, and the 
seed drops out. 
The fruit itself is covered with a soft down,, 
like that on a peach ; and the tree which bears 
it is of a moderate height, wearing a rough, 
uncouth aspe6l. 
The natives call the Banksia Pyriformis, 
the Merry-dugur-ro. Like all the other trees 
^•6f New South Wales, with the sole exception 
3'" of 
