36 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jan., 1898. 
and instead of being a plant swimming freely in the water, it becomes for the 
time being a land plant. Our friend the Water Hyacinth, it may be mentioned, 
has the same adaptability, and there are here some specimens growing on land, 
Our little plant in the pond is called Lemna oligorhiza. After such a name as 
that it seems a pity to call it a Duckweed. It is closely allied to the Calla Lily 
(generally so-called). 
We pass by smoothly shaven lawns and observe the beautiful turf so 
different from that of the time, a few years ago, when only scythes were 
employed to keep a ragged surface, passing a plant of Cocos Weddeliana, 
rather a difficult palm to grow out of doors, but doing splendidly in its jungle- 
like surroundings, until we come to the Lily Ponds. The first contains the 
White Nelumbium (Nelumbium speciosum album). This is the Sacred Lotus 
of the ancients. It has long submerged stalks (rhizomes) creeping in the mud 
at the bottom of deep water, which it likes. These rhizomes send up long 
stalks Supporting the leaves and flowers. The flowers are most beautiful, and 
to a lover of form the leaves are not less so. They are shaped something like 
large dinner-plates, and indeed in the East they are sometimes used for that 
very purpose. It is held in peculiar reverence in India, as it was in ancient 
Egypt, and much of the inimitable sculpture on Indian temples represents the 
Lotus. The natives use it in several ways. They eat the creeping rootstock, 
and it is not at all bad to eat. The flowers are largely used to decorate their 
temples. How is it that the Hindoo seems to be born with an instinctive love 
of flowers? It is a splendid bee plant, and swarms of bees are generally found 
around it. The seeds are made into rosaries which some Indian sects consider 
very sacred. The leaves when dried are used, in places where they abound, for 
thatch. The Indian doctor uses it very largely in medicine, and it is said to 
be really most useful in many cases. For instance, bees fed upon it yield a 
substance in universal use as a remedy for diseases of the eye. European 
doctors in India have prescribed various parts of the plant, but chiefly a kind 
of syrup made from the stalks, as a remedy in fever. The seeds are the 
Makhana of the native bazaars, and are much used for food. 
The fruit is most curious. Somewhere about 1,300 years ago a philosopher 
of Greece compared it to a wasp’s nest; and the description was very accurate. 
But it is a little strange that here in Queensland, the hese who cannot be 
accused of reading Pythagoras, very often take possession of the empty fruit- 
head, and use it asa nest. The next pond is full of the English Water Lily 
(Nymphea alba) ; and lovely indeed they look just now, dotting the water 
like silver stars. The rootstock is acrid, and is occasionally used medicinally 
in India, where it occurs. The edible Chinese rush occurs in this pond. It 
has to be weeded out every now and then, because it has a habit of spreading 
out of bounds. The next pond holds the large Blue Water Lily of Queensland, 
so well known to all. This plant, curiously enough, came up in abundance 
after the flood of 1893, both here and in the large lagoon, but the swans soon 
cleared it out of the latter. You cannot have swans and aquatic plants in 
the same piece of water. The next pond contains the red variety of the Lotus 
(Nelumbium speciosum rubrum). A curious habit of the Melumbiums was 
shown by these plants. They had not shown above water for several years, 
certainly for four, and it is said for much longer. After the flood of 1893, 
this pond was cleaned out, and the Nelumbium came up in force. The two 
Nelumbiums can be propagated by portions of the creeping rootstock or by 
seed. The latter, it is authoritatively said, will germinate after having been 
kept for forty years. 
In the same pond is a specimen of Nardoo (Marsilea quadrifolia), upon 
which Burke and Wills subsistedforatime. This plant grows in swamps which 
dry up in the hot weather, and the natives then collect the small seed-pods, 
and grinding them between two specially prepared stones make an apology for 
adiet. Judging by the seed-pods borne by our plants (which flourish well), it 
cannot have been a diet of a very refreshing or sustaining nature. 
