272 
FRUITS AND BERRIES. 
and velvety carpet in the heat of summer, at which 
time the fruit is in perfection. To collect so small 
a berry with facility, and in abundance, the natives 
cut a rounded tray of thin bark, two or three feet 
long, and six or eight inches wide, over this they 
lift up the plant, upon which the fruit grows, and 
shake the berries into it. When a sufficiency has 
been collected, the berries are skilfully tossed into 
the air, and separated from the leaves and dirt. The 
natives are very fond of this fruit, which affords 
them an inexhaustible resource for many weeks. In 
an hour a native could collect more than he could 
use in a day. 
The other sorts of fruits and berries are numerous 
and varied, but do not merit particular description. # 
* Mr. Simpson gives the following account of the Bunya 
Bunya, a fruit-bearing tree lately discovered on the N.E. coast of 
New Holland. 
te Ascending a steep hill, some four miles further on, we passed 
through a bunya scrub, and for the first time had an opportunity 
of examining this noble tree more closely. It raises its majestic 
head above every other tree in the forest, and must, therefore, 
frequently reach the height of 250 feet ; the trunk is beautifully 
formed, being as straight as an arrow, and perfectly branchless 
for above two-thirds of its height ; branches then strike off, 
nearly at right angles from the trunk, forming circles which gra- 
dually diminish in diameter till they reach the summit, which 
terminates in a single shoot ; the foliage shining, dark green, the 
leaves acutely pointed and lanceolate, with large green cones, the 
size of a child’s head, hanging from the terminal branches in the 
fruiting season (January). It is, too, very remarkable that the 
bunya tree, according to the natives, is nowhere to be met with 
