1330 
CXI. PROTEACE.E. 
[Mac ad ami a.. 
Ovary villous; style-end clavate. Fruit with a 2-valved coriaceous exocarp;, 
endocarp smooth and shining, thick and bony, seeds often above lin. diameter, 
globular or 2 and hemispherical. — Helicia ternifulia, F. v. M. Fragm. ii. 91, vi. 
191. 
Hab.: Pine River and Moreton Bay, W. Hill ; Dawson and Burnett Rivers. 
Wood of a red colour, close-grained, firm, and prettily marked ; will doubtless become a 
favourite wood with the cabinet-makers. — Bailey’s Cat. Ql. Woods. No. 328. 
There are probably three forms of this species, viz., the typical; another with nuts only 
half the size of the typical. These nuts I have only received from the Pine River, but hitherto 
I have never received specimens of other parts of the tree or shrub. The third seems only to 
differ from the typical form in the leaves being usually more lanceolate and in habit. It grows 
in the M iroochie scrubs, and instead of a single stem several arise from a spreading rhizome-like 
base some little distance from each other. These attain the height of 15 or more feet, and are 
said after fruiting to die early; the leaves are of thinner texture than the typical form but the 
nut differs in nothing from the common form. 
2. 1ST. Whelani (after Sergeant E. J. Whelan), Bail. A glabrous tree of 
medium size. Trunk erect, bark smoothish, not thick, seldom more than ^in. 
on old trees ; the branches opposite or whorled, reddish when young ; wood with 
the usual grain of the order and deep red. Leaves opposite or more frequently at 
the ends of the branches in whorls of 3 to 6, petiolate, lanceolate, 4 to Tin. 
long, 1 to 3in. broad, the points more or less elongated, midrib prominent; 
reticulations close, prominent in the dried leaf but scarcely so when fresh, 
margins entire. Panicles erect, terminal, puberulous, numerous, starting from 
a whorl of leaves. Peduncles slender, 3 or 4 inches long, branches in 1 or 2 
whorls of 3 to 9, pedunculate, spike-like racemes 1A to 2Ain. long, including 
the peduncle, which is about one-third of the length. Flowers 
scattered. Pedicels free, which, with the rhachis, is densely covered 
by short white hairs, about 1 line long. Perianths would appear from the 
dried specimen to be white, slightly longer than the pedicels, glabrous, or 
with a few scattered white hairs on the outside, revolute to the base. Fila- 
ments flat, inserted near the base of the perianth-segments. Anthers with 
prominent gland-like connectives. Hypogynous glands united, forming a cup. 
Ovary clothed with white hairs ; style angular, glabrous. Fruit slightly ferru- 
ginous, globular, 2 or more inches in diameter, over 2Ain. when containing 
twin nuts ; exocarp coriaceous, 2-valved, nuts globular when solitary, hemis- 
pherical when 2 in a fruit ; endocarp bony of a light-brown and glossy ; testa' 
dark-brown and wrinkled like the kernel.- — Helicia Whelani, Bail. 3rd Suppl. 
Syn. Ql. FI. 61. 
Hab : Abundant alone; Tringilburra Creek, and thence to Whelanian Pools. 
The nuts seem to be largely used by the natives of this locality for food, as we found large 
quantities of the broken shells as well as the whole nuts at all their camps.— Bail. (Bellenden 
Ker Exped., 1889), 
3. ]VI. praealta (very high), Bail. A moderate-sized or sometimes lofty 
tree, glabrous except the inflorescence which is often minutely tomentose. 
Leaves lanceolate, usually narrow, obtuse or acuminate, contracted into a 
petiole, quite entire, only 3 or 4in. long in a few specimens, mostly 6 to lOin. in 
others, coriaceous, often shining, penniveined and reticulate, the veins fine. 
Racemes axillary or lateral, 3 to Gin. long, the rhachis rigid. Pedicels 2 to 3 
lines long, united to above the middle. Perianth 7 to 8 lines long. Hypogy- 
nous glands quite distinct and narrow. Ovary glabrous. Fruit globular, 1 to 
2in. diameter, 2-valved, exocarp coriaceous, nuts globose or 2 and hemispherical ; 
endocarp somewhat rugose, bony, but not very thick. — Helicia praalta, F. v.. 
M. Fragm. iii. 37 ; Benth. in FI. Austr. v. 401. 
Ha’o.: Southern scrubs, generally on mountain sides. 
Wood of a red colour, nicely marked, close in the grain, tough, strong, ai d durable ; useful 
for cabinet-work, handles of tools, and other purposes. When newly cut it has a very disagree- 
able odour.— Bailey’s Cat. Ql. I Foods, No. 331. 
