171 
Aboriginal Names. —“ Curridjali ” of the aborigines of the counties of 
Cumberland and Camden, New South Wales, according to the late Sir William 
Macarthur. Said to be the “ Pomera ” of some Queensland aborigines. 
Synonyms. — B. spicata, Gaertn., Fr. i, 221, t. 48; B. oleifolia, Car. Anal. 
Mist. Nat. i, 228, t. 14, Ic. xi, 30, t. 545; B. macrophylla, Link., Enum. Mort. 
Berol.l, 116; B.compar, lt.Br. in Trans. Linn. Soc. x, 207, Brod. 393; Meissn. 
in DC. Prod, xiv, 457. 
Leaves. —There is considerable variety in the shapes of leaves of this species. 
This is indicated to some extent in the figure. As a rule, however, the specific 
name describes the shape very well. 
Bentham (B.F1. v, 554), speaking of Queensland specimens, says :— 
The greater number of the.se northern specimens have remarkably long leaves, sometimes 8 to 10 in. 
long and f in. wide, and constitute the B. corn-par, Br. They have also usually rattier larger flowers, but 
neither character is at all constant, and R. Brown had himself at first referred his specimens to B. 
integri folia. 
Flowers. —In this connection, a valuable paper by Bentham* may be referred 
to, as it contains some notes on the fertilisation of this genus. 
Speaking of the Natural Order as a whole, Kerner and Oliver (ii, p. 91) 
remark:— 
The pollen is deposited, whilst the flower is still in bud, upon the summit of the stigma, without, 
however, coming into contact with the receptive spot; the stigma in this case serves, at the commencement 
of flowering, as a temporary depot for the pollen. 
Coming back to BanJcsia, Bentham ( loc. cit ., p. 59) says :— 
One thing appears cer tain, that there is no genus in the order where the stigma is longer kept 
smothered in a bed of pollen, whilst there is none where effective fecundation is proportionally more rare. 
In a cone of about a thousand flowers we often find not more than two or three dozen, and sometimes not 
one dozen, fully formed fruits. 
This is one of the plants used by the aborigines for the honey or nectar they 
contain. 
The natives used also to compound liquors—perhaps after a slight fermentation to some extent 
intoxicating—from various flowers, from honey, from gums, and from a kind of manna. The liquor was 
usually prepared in the large wooden bowls ( tarnucks ) which were to be seen at every encampment. In 
the flowers of a dwarf species of Banksia (B. ornata ) there is a good deal of honey, and this was got out of 
the flowers by immersing them in water. The water thus sweetened was greedily swallowed by the 
natives. The drink was named Beal by the natives of the west of Victoria, and was much esteemed.— 
{Aboriginals of Australia, R. Brough Smyth, i, 210). 
Sir Thomas Mitchell ( Three Expeditions, ii, 288), speaking of an “Ironbark” 
near Port Phillip (Melbourne), says :— 
The flowers are gathered, and by steeping them a night in water the natives made a sweet 
beverage, called “bool.” 
(Evidently the same name as that in the preceding paragraph). 
• “Notes on the styles of Australian Proteaceae.” (Proc. Linn. Soc. xiii, 58.) 
