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The Bottle-tree. The Bottle-tree (Sterculia rupestris) is a Queensland species 
closely allied to the Lace-bark tree, and, because of the lemonade-bottle shape of its 
trunk, it is widely known as the Bottle tree. Wherever it is seen it excites interest 
because of its grotesque appearance, and there are some healthy specimens of it hi the 
Botanic Gardens, Sydney. 
It is not generally known that, like all the Kurrajongs (for it is also a Kurrajong), 
it has large succulent roots which the aborigines used to dig up for food. It is also 
not generally known that in times of drought Queensland sheep-owners actually use 
the porous wood for food, and the stem contains a gummy substance resembling 
tragacanth. 
Many years ago Mr. Edward M. Bowman, of Taroom, Queensland, wrote a letter 
in regard to this remarkable tree, extracts of which are given hereunder : 
' You will also find," he adds, " that bottle-tree boiled in a little water makes 
the most beautiful starch procurable. In fact, a young lady told me she never did up 
a dress so well as with starch produced in this way." 
Mr. Bowman accompanies his letter with instructions for feeding cattle, horses 
or sheep with bottle-tree in billets, in troughs and boxes, and also in the log. As to 
the first, he advises that the trees be cut into billets of any length desired, the bark 
stripped, then cut into slabs from 3 to 3| inches in thickness. It will be found that 
these slabs can be run through the chaffcutter with ease. When placed in the feed 
boxes it should be sprinkled with salt and mixed with bran or chaff, if such be procurable. 
" Should the beast not at first take to it, place some in its mouth with your hand until 
it makes some attempt to eat. When once some gets down the animal's throat there 
will be no further trouble." Feed sparingly for the first few days. On no account 
should the bottle-tree be damped if it becomes dry, as it would " sour." The cut-up 
bottle-tree is particularly recommended by Mr. Bowman for milking cows. For feeding 
in the log, the tree when felled should be stripped of its bark along the top to where 
the branches commence, and then troughed, and a certain portion of it " loosened " 
with an axe. Cattle or horses, as the case might be, should first be tried on the leaves 
of the newly-cut tree, and from them worked on to the log. For sheep a strip of bark 
about 1 foot wide should be cut off each side of the log, and a ledge of fodder on each 
side cut about the height to enable feeding to take place comfortably. " I cannot 
say that working horses can work too hard on bottle-tree," says Mr. Bowman in 
conclusion, " but it will at all events keep them alive." 
This tree sometimes attains considerable size, and Mr. W. Selkirk, of the 
Department of Public Works, Sydney, gives me the measurements of a tree near the 
residence of Mr. R. D. Champion, Lauriston, Jandowal, about 43 miles from Dalby, 
Queensland. It is in scrub country : 
20 feet circumference at ground; 28 feet circumference at 4 feet from ground; 
probably 34 to 36 feet circumference at 16 feet from ground; trunk from ground to 
where branches fork, 21 feet, and from fork to top of foliage, about 35 feet. 
