133 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC BOTANY— No. II. By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., &c., Curator of the Technological Museum. FOODS. Adansonia Gregorii, F.v.M. N.O. Malvaceae. The "Bottle-tree "* of N. W. Australia. From Mr. J. Pentecost, who spent some months in the Kimberley district, I learnt the following particulars in regard to these singular trees. Two or three were usually seen at a time, with a long interval. The fruits are rather larger than an emu egg (one in my possession has its diameters six and four inches respectively). The blacks, and Europeans too, chew the slightly acidulous pith or pulp. The seeds embedded in this pithy pulp taste like hazel nuts, and are a favourite food of the blacks. So valuable are these trees to them that they never notch the trunks nor injure the trees in any way in their pursuit of the fruit, as they do in the case of other trees. Cocos nucifera, Linn. N.O. Palmae. " Coco-nut " This is a tree specially protected by enactments of the Queens-land Parliament in the interests, chiefly, of the aboriginals and Polynesians. Legislation of this kind is so rare in the colonies that I have gathered some information in regard to this particular instance. Mr. Lewis Bernays, F.L.S., Clerk of the Parliaments, Brisbane, kindly informed me that the Acts referred to are the Pearl-shell and Beche-de-mer Fishery Act of 1881, and also its Amendment Act of 1886. Through his kindness in forwarding * For a fine plate, and excellent description of this tree, see J. R. Jackson in The Student, July, 1868.
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