498 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1890. 
much of my time to the work, being anxious that 
Queensland should not, if I could help it, come behind 
any of the other colonies in her exhibits derived from 
the indigenous vegetation. The shortness of time — 
only six months — left to the Commissioners for the 
work of gathering together an illustrative collection 
of the colony's product', however, prevented that full 
display of our natural resources which might have 
been obtained had more time been allowed for the 
work. However, as it was, the colony had no need to 
be ashamed of what she sent, while she has every 
reason to complain at the smallness of space allowed 
for the display of the articles sent. Our exhibit of 
indigenous woods, which comprised 537 kinds, is 
probably the most varied and valuable ever seen from 
a single British colony, and, I am glad to say, was 
duly appreciated by visitors to the exhibition. It will 
be understood that this large number of woods could 
not have been collected and prepared in the short 
time allowed for collecting the exhibits; but when 
preparing the wood exhibit for the Colonial and Indian 
Exhibition, I had a duplicate lot prepared, thus giving 
a start for the present exhibit, of 462 kinds. I have 
again had eaoh fresh kind prepared in duplicate, so 
that a set of these fresh kinds may be forwarded 
to Europe to augment the collection there which I 
believe has been handed over to the Imperial Institute. 
It may not be generally known that in Queens- 
land we have about 900 different kinds of woods, 
or, say, an equal number to that of India, and far 
in excess of any other country. Seeing this I would 
urge upon the Government the desirability of devoting 
some small vote towards the expense of carrying on 
the work of collecting and preparing as full a collec- 
tion as possible of our indigenous woods upon the 
same plan as already begun ; and also that experi- 
ments may be carried out to prove their adap- 
tability for various kinds of work. As with woods, 
so with grasses, Queensland stands unrivalled in point 
of number and nutritious kinds. Although the time 
was short for the work, I prepared a mounted exhibit 
containing 162 kinds, a number never before equalled 
at an Australian exhibition. Of both the woods and, 
grasses I prepared full descriptive catalogues which 
aftor fulfilling the requirements of the exhibition' 
will be useful works of reference on the subjects. 
The excellent collection of economic plants which 
I collected here, and afterwards arranged in a con- 
servatory at the Centennial Exhibition, proved one of 
the most instructive and attractive of our exhibits. 
The plants, however, suffered much at first from the 
cold, as the conservatory could not be supplied with 
artificial heat. The pamphlet also which I prepared, 
giving a sketch of all tbe plants of an economic charac- 
ter at present in the colony, has been eagerly sought 
after, both here and at the Exhibition, as it forms a 
ready work of reference on the subject. 
Phyllachoba aspidea, Berk, and Br — This fungus, 
which was first found on the foliage of Ficus repens, at 
Ceylon, was received from Mr. J. Keys on the leaves &{ 
one of our native figs from Bundaberg. 
BIacrospohium peponicolum, Rabh. — Some Pawpaw 
fruit received from Mackay were so badly affected with 
this fungus as to be useless forwarding to the Centennial 
Exhibition, for which they were intended. In several 
parts of Europe this fungus attacks the fruits of the 
pumkin and melon family, hence Rabenhorst's specific 
name for the plant. 
JjAXTANA Oamaha, Linn. Black Currant Shrub. — This 
is perhaps the most troublesome of all our naturalised 
plants, as it occupies the land to the expulsion of all 
else- Mr. W. S. Campbell, speaking of this plant, 
Report on the Richmond River District, says: "On 
each side of the road from Wyralla to Lismore, and 
also for some miles around Lismore, hundreds of acres 
of land that had once been cleared of timber have be- 
come utterly useless from the spread of this shrub." 
Phytolacca octandba, Linn. — The Red Ink-plunt 
or Poke-weed. This plant, which has only been in- 
troduced now but a few years, bids fair to cause 
much trouble both to the agriculturists and pastora- 
lists : some farms seem to be quite in possession of the 
pest; this is especially the case at the Rosewood, But 
from Mr. W. S. Campbell's account, it must be even 
worse on the Richmond River, for he says, " there it 
grows to such a height as to in places hide the settlers' 
houses." 
Ricinds communis, Linn. — The Castor Oil Shrub. — 
Doubtless a most useful plwt, but too fond of occupy- 
ing the rich lands bordering on rivers. 
* 
DIRECT INFLUENCE OF POLLEN 
ON THE ORANGE. 
In spite of what some botanists set forth as Nature's 
unvarying law, the question of the immediate and 
direct influence of pollen on fruit should, in the 
matter of the Orange and Lemon, and all Citrus 
fruits, be considered as one which has been settled. 
For weeks each season I have been carefully ex- 
amining the exterior and interior of Oranges growing 
on Maltese Blood trees, and on the Imperial Blood 
of the St. Michael family, which have a navel mark 
not common to either family. I have singled out 
these two families of the Blood Orange with the 
navel mark because I consider the three Oranges as 
the best of all Oranges, and have made careful ex- 
periments for years, hoping and expecting to combine 
in one Orange the superior points of the Blood aud 
the Navel. 
These Blood Oranges having the navel mark are 
completely changed in outline, in their exterior and 
all through, by the effect of the pollen of the Navel 
trees. From being naturally oblong, they become 
somewhat flattened, the flavour is changed, and the 
cellular form of the pulp is changed. 
Of twenty Oranges having a navel mark recently 
cut from a Maltese Blood trees, standing beside a 
Washington Navel tree ; only two of the Oranges had 
a single seed, eighteen were seedless, while nineteen 
in twenty of the Bloods which were not marked by 
the navel had one or two seeds. Not always does the 
pollen of the Navel show its effect in the lengthened 
axis. Sometimes you find an Orange shaped like the 
Navel except the umbilical mark is wanting on 
the outside. Inside there is no axilar centre ; the 
inner Orange has spread all through the fruit. There 
are two sorts of pulp, two sorts of fruit-cells, and 
two separate and distinct flavours. 
A few times I have seen an Orange cut from a 
Majorica tree, one side almost solidly coloured, like 
an Imperial Blood, pulp dark as wine ; the other 
side not a trace of rubricate, the divisions of fruit- 
cells as distinct and clear as though they had been 
fenced off by an impassable dividing line. One side 
the decided piquant flavour, sub-acid, that a thirsty 
man gratefuQy remembers on a hot day ; the other, 
the fruity flavour of a Strawberry or Black-cap Rasp- 
berry, with juice quite as dark as that of the latter 
berry. Such an Orange I cut at Ocala during the 
exhibition last winter, and observing visitors noted 
the difference in flavour as well as strong contrasts 
in colour in the two sides of the same Orange. 
Some time later I cut a Prata Orang-e, such as L. 
W. Sherman, of Boston, sells for "whites," because 
the rind is a pale lemon colour. I noticed before I 
cut it, longitudinal, single rows of rubricate oil cells, 
running from flower to stem as straight as the lines 
of longitude on a school globe. The opposite cheek 
of the Orange had splashes of them, giving a beau- 
tiful contrast to the pale lemon shade. I was not 
surprised to find in the pulp, usually as pale and 
white as a Villa Franca Lemon, rubricate tints. 
I then went to the row of trees on the opposite 
side of the Blood Oranges, and soon found on one 
of the outside branches of the Ribbed Du Roi, an 
Orange well marked as a Du Roi, save the blossom 
end, which was a well-defined Blood. I cut and found 
a more deeply-coloured Orange than the average 
Bloods, with not a seed, although the Du Rois are 
not wanting in seeds. , 
Among the ornamental dwarf Orange trees at Beliard 
President Berckmans, during a visit last winter, calleof 
attention to one found with rind not unlike the shell of 
