«1 June, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. ATL 
Botany. 
EDIBLE FRUITS INDIGENOUS TO QUEENSLAND. 
(To be continued as fruits become available.) 
By F. MANSON BAILEY, F.L.S., 
Colonial Botanist. 
No. 1. 
DAVIDSONIAN PLUM. 
(Davidsonia pruriens, F. y. M.) 
Tis forms a small tree of graceful erect habit, and belongs to the order 
Saxifrager. Leaves often long, drooping, leaflets oblong-lanceolate in 
opposite distant pairs with a terminal cdd one, stalkless, clothed with short 
hairs, margins sharply toothed, rhachis between the leaflets bordered by 
interrupted jagged wings between the leaflets, lower leaflets the smallest, the 
upper ones often over 7 in. long. Jt is a native of tropical Queensland and 
bears its oval fruit, which attains the size of a goose-ege, on long pendulous 
racemous panicles. The outside of the fruit is covered. with short stiff hairs ; 
these, however, are easily removed by a slight rubbing with a rough cloth, and 
then is exposed the smooth purple plum-like skin of the fruit; the interior is 
composed of a few flat, irregularly-shaped seeds, embedded in a soft fleshy 
pulp of a rich purple colour and a sharply acid flavour. (See Plate XX XVII.) 
The seeds are small for the size of the fruit, a feature not frequently occurring 
in wild fruits, but not uncommon in tropical Queensland. This plum, which is 
in perfection about July, is largely used by the settiers for making into jam 
and jelly, as well as an addition to pie-melon or pumpkin, to which it imparts 
an agreeable acid and rich colouring. By careful selection and cultivation 
this fruit might become a valuable addition to our cultivated kinds. 
For many years past this tree has borne fruit in plantations in Southern 
Queensland, particularly in the garden of the late Mr. A. J. Hockings, South 
‘Brisbane. These fruits only attain about half the size of those in the Northern 
scrubs, although for flavour and colour they quite equal the tropical fruits. 
A smaller form of this fruit, D. pruriens, var. Jerseyana, is met with in 
the scrubs of Southern Queensland and the adjoining scrubs of New South 
Wales. 
No, 2. 
ENDEAVOUR RIVER PEAR. 
{Eugenia eucalyptoides, ¥. v. M.) 
Turs is a tall shrub or small tree with pendulous branches. Leaves on 
the Queensland plants linear-lanceolate, falcate, 4 to 7 in. long, tapering to a 
fine point, and at the base to a slender petiole of about 5 lines, width 2 or 5 
lines, penninerved with oblique distant nerves joining an intramarginal one 
near the edge of the leaf, both surfaces closely covered with minute dots. I 
have seen no flowers of the Queensland form. The fruit is rosy-red next the 
sun, pear-shaped, about 1} in, long, and 1} in. in diameter at the larger end, 
