SKETCH OF THE VEGETATION OF AUSTRALIA. 
211 
plants, Tetratheca ciliata is beautiful and new, 
growing with tufts of slender stems about a 
foot high, and having oval leaves arranged in 
whorls, and large rich purple flowers. Bul- 
bine mavis has fleshy fascicled roots, and, 
long glaucous narrow leaves, with an upright 
spike [of numerous pale yellow flowers. Near 
the river Bogan, a new caper tree (Capparis 
Mitchellii) is met with, having oboval leaves 
and yellow flowers, succeeded by a spherical 
fruit resembling a small lemon, hairy outside, 
and filled within with small nuts enveloped in 
a soft pulp, and having an agreeable perfume. 
A species of cucumber (Cucumis pubescens?) 
is also found in rich soil near water, having 
flowers of a purple colour, succeeded by a very 
bitter fruit about the size of a plum. In other 
places the ground is almost covered with a 
small annual mallowort (Hibiscus tridacty- 
lites) having roundish root-leaves, those of the 
red stem being digitate, and bearing small 
flowers. A Cassia (C. teretifolia) of great 
beauty is found on Mount Flinders and near 
it, the whole plant being covered with a white 
down, and producing pinnate leaves, having 
five or six pairs of thin round blunt leaflets ; 
the flowers are produced in spikes of about 
five each, and make a striking appearance. 
The Darling Downs, lying back from 
Moreton Bay about 150 miles, in the 28° of 
latitude, are at an elevation of 1,800 to 2,000 
feet above the level of the sea ; here, in the 
winter season, the cold is sometimes very se- 
vere, considering the low latitude in which 
they are situate. A similar vegetation to that 
of the other interior downs obtains here, ac- 
companied in many cases with a greater luxu- 
riance and development of the various plants 
forming the flora of the district. This is 
peculiarly visible on descending from the 
downs to Moreton Bay, a very sharp fall, 
especially on entering the valley of the Bris- 
bane River, or any x>f its tributaries, where 
the trees acquire a much larger size, and also 
stand at much wider intervals. Here the 
Moreton Bay pine (Araucaria Cunninghami) 
attains a very large size, its fine crown of 
dense branches and awl-shaped leaves rising 
far above all its neighbours. At least two 
other species of pine are said to be found in 
the neighbourhood ; besides the Bunya bunya 
(Araucaria Bid/villi), a tree of most magni- 
ficent dimensions, with a -head of spreading 
branches densely covered with dark green 
lance-shaped leaves, ending in a sharp point, and 
arranged in a somewhat two-ranked manner. 
The cones are filled with large eatable seeds, 
somewhat resembling the almond in flavour, 
and to collect and feast upon which large con- 
gregations of the natives take place every year, 
lasting in general two or three months, from 
January to March. The principal forest of 
these trees lies about seventy-five miles in a 
north-west direction from Moreton Bay. In 
the neighbourhood of this bay other species 
of gum trees (Eucalypti) yield a manna simi- 
lar to that previously mentioned. In the 
forests on the banks of the rivers also occurs 
the Moreton Bay Chestnut ( Cast anosper mum 
australe), a tree rising to the height of one 
hundred feet, with pinnate leaves resembling 
those of the walnut, appearing from the tips 
of the branches at the same time that the 
small bunches of red and yellow pea-shaped 
flowers are produced from the old wood, and 
which are succeeded by pods containing from 
two to four seeds as big as ordinary chestnuts, 
which also afford food for the natives. With 
it also grows the Silver Oak (Grevillea ro- 
busta) with its ornamental fern-like leaves. 
This, with Stenocarpns Cunninghami, are 
two of the very few Proteads to be found in 
the immediate vicinity of the Bay. The latter 
is a stiff-growing plant, with large leaves re- 
sembling those of the common oak in outline, 
and bearing clusters of singular scarlet flowers 
arranged in a wheel-like form at the extremity 
of long flower-stalks. Altogether the plants 
of Moreton Bay indicate a near approach to a 
tropical vegetation, although on the elevated 
downs of the interior comparatively little of 
this character is to be traced. 
Turning into the interior, and approaching 
the tropic of Capricorn, many new species of 
plants are met with, the most singular of 
which is the bottle-tree (Belabechea rupestris), 
which has singular gouty stems, so soft and 
full of mucilage as to be capable of being 
easily cut, and to furnish a large proportion 
of human subsistence. One of the most valu- 
able plants of this district is doubtless the 
millet-grass (Panicum leevinode), called by 
the natives "coolly," having a compound con- 
tracted spike of flowers, with a smooth stem, 
and leaves reaching a height of three feet. 
The seeds of this grass are large enough, and 
produced in sufficient abundance, to form an 
extensive article of diet for the natives, who 
collect it in great quantities, and, pounding 
the seeds with water, manufacture a kind of 
bread ; being one of the rare instances in 
which the seeds of a cereal are produced 
freely enough in a wild state to become of 
importance to man as a bread-stuff. This 
grass occurs over a large tract of country, 
being found as far south as the Darling River. 
A curious plant found in this district is a 
coral tree (Erythrina vespertilio), with a stem 
as much as a foot thick, and thorny, the leaf- 
lets in threes, having a strong resemblance to 
the extended wings of a bat ; the flowers are 
succeeded by pods, each containing two scarlet 
seeds about the size of French beans. The 
poplar-leaved gum-tree (Eucalyptus populi- 
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