distantibus. FOLIA lineari-oblonga, acuminata, integerrima, in
petiolum filiformem ipsis duplbreviorem insidentia, subtus pallida et
quasi vernice quadam cinerea obducta. INFLORESCENTIA axillaris,
trichotoma, tomentosa, foliis brevior. CALYX valvatus, utrinque
tomentosus.

The wood of the tree has a remarkably loose texture: it is soft, and
brittle, owing to the presence of an enormous quantity of very large
tubes of pitted tissue, some of which measure a line and half across;
they form the whole inner face of each woody zone. When boiling water is
poured over shavings of this wood a clear jelly, resembling tragacanth,
is formed and becomes a thick viscid mass; iodine stains it brown, but
not a trace of starch is indicated in it. No doubt the nutritious quality
of the tree is owing to the mucilage, which is apparently of the same
nature as that of the nearly allied Tragacanth tree of Sierra Leone
(STERCULIA TRAGACANTHA).

It is not a little remarkable that the barrel-like form of the trunk
should be almost exactly paralleled by another Sterculiad, the CHORISIA
VENTRICOSA of Nees, called by the Brazilian Portuguese PAO BARRIGUDO. It
seems, however, that a tendency to a short lumpish mode of growth is
common among the order, as is indicated by the Baobab of Senegal, which
is almost as broad as it is long, and the great buttress trees, or Silk-
Cottons of tropical America.--J. L.]

9TH MAY.--The thermometer stood at 19 deg. in my tent this morning, yet no
ice appeared on the adjacent pool; for this reason, we named that branch
of the river Frosty Creek. In order to leave a more direct track for Mr.
Kennedy to follow with the drays, I made the carts return about two miles
to the spot where we first made these ponds. There I had a trench cut
across the track to the camp we had quitted, and also buried a letter for
Mr. Kennedy, in which I instructed him to avoid that detour which might
have otherwise led him into scrubs. We then prolonged our track from the
south, northward across the open downs. I travelled in the direction of
the meridian, and most of our route, this morning, marked a due north
line. We came, at length, upon a watercourse which I took for our river,
as the banks were finely rounded, the ponds full of water, and the woods
quite open. The scenery was parklike and most inviting. The watercourse,
soon, however, dwindled into a mere chain of ponds, and these at last
were found to contain no water, when we had