Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany, Volume 8Sir William Jackson Hooker Reeve, Benham, and Reeve, 1856 |
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acuminate acute allied amongst anthers apice appears Australia Australian Alps axillary base beautiful blunt Bojer botanical botanists bracteoles branches calyx Candolle capsule carpels characters collected Colony colour convex coriaceous corolla cultivated dead trunks decurrent dense Dicotyledons distinct Ensete feet Ferns Flora flowers foliis fruit Gardens genera genus Gills glabrous Hasskarl Herbarium Hook hymenio Hymenium inches high indusium island Java lamellis lanceolate lanceolatis leaves length line thick linear lobes margin mountains Muell Mueller Murray River native Natural Orders nearly ovate pale Panuré Parmelia pedicels peduncles petals petioles pileo Pileus Pileus 2 inches plants plates pores poris Quinquina rarely remarkable resembles rugose scabrous seeds sepals sessile short shorter silky slightly smooth Snowy River soil solitary South species specimens Spruce stem stipite style summit Tarapoto tenui thin tion tree tropical twigs umbilicato umbrino vegetation Victoria VIII wood zones
Popular passages
Page 229 - When the durion strikes a man in its fall, it produces a dreadful wound, the strong spines tearing open the flesh, while the blow itself is very heavy ; but from this very circumstance death rarely ensues, the copious effusion of blood preventing the inflammation which might otherwise take place. A Dyak chief informed me that he had been struck down by a durion falling on his head, which he thought would certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a very short time.
Page 230 - Durian falling on his head, which he thought would certainly have caused his death, yet he recovered in a very short time. Poets and moralists, judging from our English trees and fruits, have thought that small fruits always grew on lofty trees, so that their fall should be harmless to man, while the large ones trailed on the ground. Two of the largest and heaviest fruits known, however, the Brazil-nut fruit (Bertholletia) and...
Page 228 - The fruit is round, or slightly oval, about the size of a large cocoa-nut, of a green color, and covered all over with short, stout spines, the bases of which touch each other, and are consequently somewhat hexagonal, while the points are very strong and sharp. It is so completely armed that, if the stalk is broken off, it is a difficult matter to lift one from the ground.
Page 229 - ... and other incongruities. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid, nor sweet, nor juicy, yet one feels the want of none of these qualities, for it is perfect as it is.
Page 225 - I had previously visited, these gigantic grasses were comparatively scarce ; and, where found, but little used, their place being taken as to one class of uses by the great variety of palms, and as to another by calabashes and gourds. Almost all tropical countries produce bamboos, and, wherever they are found in abundance, the natives apply them to a variety of uses.
Page 226 - ... bamboos fifty or sixty feet long are fixed on the banks or on the branch of a tree below. These bridges are traversed daily by men and women carrying heavy loads, so that any insecurity is soon discovered, and, as the materials are close at hand, immediately repaired.
Page 226 - At the crossing they are firmly bound together, and to a large bamboo which lies upon them and forms the only pathway, with a slender and often very shaky one to serve as a handrail. When a river is to be crossed an overhanging tree is chosen, from which the bridge is partly suspended and partly supported by diagonal struts from the banks, so as to avoid...
Page 225 - The bamboo is one of the most wonderful and most beautiful productions of the tropics, and one of nature's most valuable gifts to uncivilized man. The Dyak houses are all raised on posts, and are often two or three hundred feet long and forty or fifty wide. The floor is always formed of strips...
Page 228 - They also make excellent cooking utensils; vegetables and rice can be boiled in them to perfection, and they are often used when travelling. Salted fruit or fish, sugar, vinegar, and honey are preserved in them instead of in jars or bottles.
Page 229 - ... it is unsurpassed. If I had to fix on two only, as representing the perfection of the two classes, I should certainly choose the Durian and the Orange as the king and queen of fruits.