nA 
THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 182 
when it had sufficiently revived, placed it on a miniature 
raft of straw and soft grasses, and set it adrift in a tank. 
There it thrived for two weeks on soaked bread and mos- 
quito larve, for the water was simply teeming with the 
latter, which in this instance proved to be the staple food. 
I brought the duckling indoors at night, and made it cosy 
in a small box, with suitable warm bedding. But one 
morning, after a severe storm, I found the supply of 
wrigglers had been completely washed away, and two days 
later, November 23rd, the duckling died. 
BURRINGBAR AND MOOBALL DISTRICTS, TWEED 
RIVER, OCTOBER, 1916. 
By Miss F. M. Irby. 
The Blue Fig-trees, Elaeocarpus grandis, are covered 
with handsome fruit; they look good to eat, and school 
children seem fond of them; but only a thin layer of 
pulp surrounds the hard ornamental stone, and that little 
is extremely acid. 
The Queensland Nut, Macadamia ternifolia, is also 
flowering, and many of the bushes are already covered 
with long strings of green fruit. The Red Nut is also 
flowering. All who know them prefer this nut of the two, 
and the shrub is so handsome (not unliké the tamarind, 
Diploglottis cunninghamii) that it would be well worth 
cultivation in any garden for the foliage alone. 
The smaller wild flowers are extremely scarce. One little 
white daisy was plentiful, growing on a bushy plant 
from one to two feet high. The wild purple convolvulous 
and Bignoma jasminoides were plentiful, so was Mucwna 
gigantea, with its striking green flowers. This creeper 
is easily grown from seed, is both peculiar and handsome 
in appearance, yet I have never seen it in any garden. 
One handsome tree flowering now has creamy heads 
of feathery stamens, ancther is covered with strings of 
tiny coloured flowers, borne in such profusion that the 
large trees look quite yellow. The pink and wine-colouved 
flowers of the green kurrajong are everywhere, and an- 
other, Hibiscus, with a very similar flower, but with a 
