34 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAN. [1 Jan., 1898. 
grateful dense shade referred to, found in the open forest where column after 
column bears aloft its leafy canopy. In the Domain at Sydney something of 
the sort has been done with some of the figs, and there is nothing more 
grateful than to plunge into their dense shade after a weary tramp through the 
hot and dusty streets; it seems like a shade bath. It is hoped to have a cool 
avenue of this sort in a few years with seats where one can rest and enjoy 
the cool. 
Let us onward, passing the point where we stopped last time we met in the 
Gardens (I’.11); we bear slightly to the-left, and go down a gentle slope. To 
the left is a border of mixed shrubs. If you are from what we still lovingly 
call “the old country,” you will notice a little way down on your left a plant 
of the Elder, so dear to the heart of the English schoolboy for the manufacture 
of his peashooter, and around which so many strange wild legends are grouped, 
especially in Ireland. To the, right is a triangular piece of ground, which is 
being deyoted topalms. Over eighty specimens have recently been planted there 
—three of each surt. They are just starting into vigorous growth. You may have 
noticed this of palms more. than of any other plant ; that after they are planted, 
they remain. without making any growth worth mentioning for a long time, as 
if they were sulking at being turned out of their snug quarters, and had hardly . 
decided whether to spite you by dying or go on living. But when they do make 
a start, they grow with comparative rapidity. nant 
A little further down we come to a fine group of the Common Bamboo (D.6), 
and beneath them on the corner there is a flourishing Date Palm. Its position 
illustrates the small amount of sustenance this palm will live upon. Hardly 
any other plant would flourish in land.sucked dry by.the roots of the Bamboos. 
The most famous variety of Date is that known as Tafilat. Introduced to 
Antigua, it fruited at four and a-half years. In its native country a good tree 
bears from 150 to 200 Ib. per annum. ‘Trees have been known to bear 400 Ib. 
A plantation in full bearing produces 51 ewt. to the acre, and this at, say, £2 
to the ewt., would mean that on the London market the, produce of.one acre 
would be of the value of £100.—Kew Bulletin. 
The average value of dates in London is ag follows :—Tafilat, 75s. to 84s. 
per cwt.; Egyptian, 28s. to 45s. per ewt.; Bussore, 18s. to 21s..per,cwt. 
So well. known.are the nourishing qualities of dates to the Arab. of the 
desert, that he will start out on a long journey provided.only with a little date- 
flour to sustain him. : mf a pe 
_» On the opposite corner (H. 10) stands the Strychnine-tree (Strychnos Nua- 
Vomica).» It is the source of the deadly strychnia. This alkaloid is extracted 
from the seeds, and has an. extensive use in medicine. People .used to write 
to the papers pretty often some years ago, pointing out the fearful results 
likely to acerue from allowing the fruits of this tree to lie aboutin the Gardens. 
Children were in danger of being poisoned wholesale! ‘The fruit is not 
poisonous, and a child might eat some ; but that child-would possess a queer 
sense of taste. If one may judge from one eaten the other,day with a view of 
telling you what it is like as an article of diet, no child would ever get 
beyond the first bite. It is most intensely bitter, and generally about the 
most unpleasant thing one can possibly imagine to taste. It is not likely, to 
come into general useas a dessert fruit. Yet the birds devour it in India, and 
what is more, they swallow the seeds, which do not seem to do them any. 
BNSCiA ATM aye cides Meet cel lat Fahey ay aa 
A yery close relative of this plant, or, to speak mo 
_ its close, relatives, furnish the chief ingredient of the. deadly wourali poison 
with which the Indian in the deep forests of South America, and along the 
banks of the mighty Amazon and Orinoco,. tips, his fatal blow-pipe dart. 
These are Strychnos toxifera, S. Schomburghii, 8. cogens, and other species, 
The tree next it hails from a yery different part ofthe globe. It is the 
Balsam of Peru, formerly shipped from San Salvador in Central America, but 
now little used in medicine. To your left (G. 9) there is a fine clump of 
- Bamboos. Anyone who knows what an indispensable plant this is to the 
re correctly, several of 
