Grew from twenty to thirty feet high, with a very slender
stem and small crown, and formed large groves
In the stringy-bark forest.
A grass, well known at the Hunter by its scent resembling that of crushed
ants, was here scentless; a little plant, with large, white, tubular,
sweet-scented flowers, grew sociably in the forest, and received the name
of "native primrose;" a species of Commelyna, and a prostrate malvaceous
plant with red flowers, and a species of Oxystelma, contributed by their
beauty and variety to render the country interesting.
Nov. 30. - The lower part of the creek on which we were encamped was
covered with a thicket of Pandanus; but its upper part was surrounded by
groves of the Livistona palm. As our horses had been driven far from the
camp by the grey horse-fly and by a large brown fly with green eyes,
which annoyed us particularly before sunset, and shortly after sunrise,
we had to wait a long time for them, and employed ourselves, in the
meanwhile, with cutting and eating the tops of Livistona. Many were in
blossom, others were in fruit; the latter is an oblong little stone fruit
of very bitter taste. Only the lowest part of the young shoots is
eatable, the remainder being too bitter. I think they affected the bowels
even more than the shoots of the Corypha palm.
We made a short Sunday stage through a fine forest, in which Livistona
became more and more frequent.
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