6 
I hope some future day to give a comparative account of 
the phenomena produced by pit urine and nicotine. At present 
very little Pituri can be got, and the plant is not under culti- 
vation. The nearest place we know it grows — Eyre’s Creek — is 
800 miles from here in a straight line. Hodgkinson’s Pituri 
was gathered on the Queensland border, latitude 22° 52' 51", 
longitude 138°. 
In many parts of the interior, from Cooper’s Creek to the 
Gulf of Carpentaria, the Pituri grows, and several persons 
engaged in establishing new stations in the Western country 
hear it spoken of by the aborigines, but very few know the tree, 
as the natives avoid giving any information about it. A letter 
about Pituri, published in the Queenslander recently, is so 
interesting that I quote it here in full : — 
Pitueia. — Wc are indebted to Mr. Sylvester Brown for the 
following very interesting paper, which Las been a long time in 
reaching us, being dated “ Sandringham, Sylvester Creek, 10th 
December," and having only just come to hand : — 
Pituri-land is so little known that perhaps a short description of 
the shrub, its locale, and manner of growth may prove interesting. I 
am moved to this from perusing in a recent Queenslander (dated 
October 19) that Dr. Bancroft, of Brisbane, has lately read a paper 
on the subject at a meeting of the Queensland Philosophical Society. 
I have during the last few months passed several times through 
the belt of country in which pituri has hitherto only been found. It 
is situated, so far as my means of observation serve, with the 138th 
meridian of east longitude passing through the belt about the middle, 
and I have met with the shrub anywhere in the vicinity of the 
longitude mentioned between the 23rd and 24th parallel south 
latitude, with a depth of fifty milts east and west. The pituri shrub, 
when full grown, is about 8 feet high, and the wood at the thickest 
part of the stem is up to 6 inches in diameter. When freshly cut the 
wood has a decided smell of vanille. It is very light and close- 
grained ; colour, lemon. Dr. Bancroft’s guess as to the seed is so far 
correct that the berry (which, when ripe, is black and like a small 
black currant) has inside very minute kidney-shaped seeds. I have 
secured some of the seed, picked by myself from the growing tree, 
and hope, when passing through Brisbane, to let Dr. Bancroft have 
an opportunity of continuing his investigation of this rare plant by 
endeavouring to grow some of it. I have also cut some samples of 
the wood which I shall bring dow r n unless absorbed, specimens and 
all, by early floods en route. I formerly heard many wonderful 
accounts of the rarity of pituri, and the great difficulty of procuring 
it. These absurd reports were strengthened by the extreme value 
placed on it by inside blacks, wdio could only obtain it by barter. 
“ It grew on a rocky mountain in the Stony Desert, jealously guarded 
by the owners of the soil, who, in their periodical trips to obtain a 
supply, would have to carry three days’ water in coolimans and 
paddymelon-skin w r aterbags.’’ T also heard that it “grew only on a 
small extent of ground not exceeding twenty square miles whereas 
the fact is that it grows on the ridges of high spinifex sandhills, and 
