1 Ava., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. om 163. 
Popular Botany. 
OUR BOTANIC GARDENS. 
No. 6. 
By PHILIP MAC MAHON, r, 
Curator. 
To resume our walks in our Gardens. You are now standing at the bottom of 
a flight of steps which leads from a knollto the lower ground. Around you 
tower the palms, about which we have spoken in previous chats. Your: 
position is at the spot indicated on the map as L.10. By walking back towards 
thelily ponds a few yards, you will notice two trees close together with dark-green 
glossy foliage. These are the Moreton Bay Chestnut. It is a beautiful shade 
free of a very distinctive character, better suited for planting in picturesque 
groups than for avenue planting. Amongst stockowners it has a somewhat 
sinister reputation, as it is said by some that stock browsing on the leaves 
during periods of drought become injured, and by others that the fallen seeds 
poison cattle when picked up by them. The case against the tree has not, 
however, been at all proven. It is possible that where cattle have picked up the 
hard seeds these latter may have acted in a few instances as any other foreign 
body of a hard nature would act in thestomach. The natives use the seeds for 
food. In 1866 Mr. C. Moore, as we learn from Mr. Maiden, exhibited flour 
made from the seeds of this tree, and which when made into bread tasted 
something like a coarse ship’s biscuit. The seeds are soaked by the natives for 
a week, then roasted and finally pounded into a flour which they can carry with 
them in all their wanderings. The wood makes beautiful specimens of the 
turner’s and cabinetmaker’s art, when the sapwood has been cleaned off. 
In the museum of the Department of Agriculture may be seen beautiful 
specimens of the heartwood of this tree; in fact, the scrubs and forests of 
Queensland teem with woods highly suitable for turnery, veneers, and art 
furniture of all descriptions. There is not as yet a large demand for these very 
beautiful woods outside the colony. Buyers of this class of timber, and indeed 
of all timbers at the great centres of trade, require that the supply should be 
constant, reliable, and uniform in quality before they will consent to discard 
old and tried favourites in favour of new and more or less experimental 
ventures, however tempting. 
Close by is the aviary. As this is not a department to which any money 
ean be devoted, the collection of birds is not extensive, but it comprises some 
well-known Queensland varieties. In a corner, almost concealed from view, 
a pair of bower-birds have commenced to construct their peculiar bower, a 
short avenue of twigs which have their thicker ends stuck into the soil, 
and the thinner ends almost meeting above, forming a kind of tunnel-like 
arbour. See! there comes the female bird. She has seized upon a yellow 
feather which has fallen from the crest of the sulphur-crested cockatoo,. 
and she fixes it at the entrance of the arbour. Then with head turned to 
one side she surveys the effect through one of her deep violet coloured eyes. 
No! it wiil not do like that. Tor some bird-reason, quite unintelligible to. 
the human onlooker, she decides to shift it, and this she does several times, 
until at last the precise artistic effect she desires is obtained, and she suffers. 
it to remain. 
