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Botanical Name. — Castanospermum , from the Latin castanea, a chestnut, 
ancl spermum, a seed. The tree is confined to Australia, and in non-Australian 
descriptions of it the name is usually explained on the ground that “ the seeds are 
roasted like chestnuts.” This matter is alluded to later on. Australe, Latin 
Southern, and hence Australian. 
Vernacular Names. —Because of the seeds, which are very large beans, 
this tree goes under the name of Bean Tree ; and because of the dark colour of the 
wood, and partly by way of distinction from the Bed Bean ( Dysoxylon Muelleri), it is 
usually known by timber merchants as Black Bean. Moreton Bay Chestnut is an 
old name for the tree, because it was first found in the Moreton Bay district 
(Queensland). 
This tree was discovered by Mr. Charles Fraser, Colonial Botanist, and 
Mr. Allan Cunningham, a botanist then attached fo the Boyal Gardens at Kew, and 
who afterwards succeeded Mr. Fraser at the Sydney Botanic Gardens. 
The plant is figured and described in Hooker’s Botanical Miscellany , vol. i 
(1830), which contains an account of a botanical trip made by those gentlemen in 
the neighbourhood of Moreton Bay. A forest, “ near Brisbane Town,” contains 
“ a most interesting new plant, producing fruit larger than a Spanish chestnut, by 
which name it is here known.” 
Aboriginal Names.— “ Trtalie ” is the name given to this tree by the 
aborigines of the Richmond and Clarence Rivers, New South Wales (C. Moore); 
“ Bogum ” was an aboriginal name in the northern parts of the same State; 
“ Kongo ” of the natives of the Russell River, Queensland (F. M. Bailey); 
“ Wung-ah,” of Herbert River (Q.) blacks (J. A. Boyd). 
Leaves. —Mr. F. M. Bailey points out that the micro-fungi, Asterina 
platystoma, Cooke and Massee, and Myriocephalum castanospermi, Cooke and 
Massee, often injure the leaflets of this tree. 
Flowers. —The flowers are borne on the last year’s wood, bear a general 
resemblance to pea-flowers, though more solid and fleshy, and in colour vary from 
yellow, through all stages of orange, to coral red. They are very handsome, though 
not available for cut flowers. There are two forms, as has already been pointed out. 
Fruits. —Mr. C. Fraser, Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, 
“ being directed to establish a public garden in Brisbane Town,” carried out this 
task in 1828, and was accompanied by Allan Cunningham. They discovered this 
tree, and Fraser says— 
By the natives the fruit is eaten on all occasions; it has, when roasted, the flavour of a Spanish 
chestnut, and I have been assured by Europeans who have subsisted on it exclusively for two days, that 
no other unpleasant effect was the result than a slight pain in the bowels, and that only when it was eaten 
raw. 
