Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria: 1854-1855, Volume 1

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Page 72 - ... inserts the teeth in the bark, in the fork of two of the topmost branches. This tree is made known only to certain persons of the tribe, and is strictly kept from the knowledge of the youth himself. In case the person to whom the tree is thus dedicated dies the foot of it is stripped of its bark, and it is killed by the application of fire, thus becoming a monument of the deceased.
Page 73 - The young man who wishes to marry, has first to look out for a wife amongst the girls or leubras of some neighbouring tribe, and having fixed his choice, his next care is to obtain her consent. This being managed the happy couple straightway elope, and remain together in the bush for two nights and one day in order to elude the pretended search of G the tribe to whom the female belonged.
Page 91 - But what mainly illustrates the fertility and salubrity of both these countries, is the healthiness of the English settlers who have taken root in the soil. No endemic disease, and seldom any epidemic" of grave character prevails ; and if individual indisposition, or even partial deterioration of the progeny is sometimes seen, it is to be traced to the pertinacity with which the English race cling to their original modes of living wherever they settle, and however different their adopted may be...
Page 91 - ... their native climate : it is to the abuse of strong wines, malt liquors, and spirits, and particularly to the excessive consumption of animal food of the richest description, and even to the mode of clothing and housing, that individual diseases, such as dyspepsia, premature decay of teeth, and affection of the brain, may be attributed.
Page 40 - ... the length of the leaflets; bracteoles lanceolate - ovate, acuminate; pods black, wrinkled-scabrous. On the grassy moist banks of the Snowy River, Gibbo River, Mitta Mitta, Ovens River, and along the torrents of the Australian Alps. This fine plant approaches nearer to Ps. Australasica than to Ps. tenax; the colour of the flowers is purple like that of the former, not deep blue as in the latter, from which it differs besides in the greater size of all parts and the above notes. It may be considered...
Page 107 - Tall ; leaves sub-coriaceous, undivided, long-lanceolate, rarely ovate, acute, short-mucronate, gradually tapering into the petiole, penninerved, veined, with slightly recurved margin, above smooth, beneath with branchlets and rachis grey-silky; racemes pedunculate, axillary and terminal, elongate, sometimes divided, drooping, their development centripetal ; calyces three times longer than the pedicel ; outside rutilous, silky ; inside, below the middle, whitebearded; style long-exserted, glabrous...
Page 265 - ... particular term of dilution ? The above dilute acid consists of 73 per cent of oil of vitriol, and 27 of water. But 73 of the former contains, by this Table, 59.52 of dry acid, and 13.48 of water. Hence 100 of the dilute acid consist of 59.52 of dry acid, + 13.48 x 3...
Page 35 - Perennial; stems upright or ascending, branched, scabrous from small papulae; leaves linear, entire, slightly tapering into the base ; flowers without petals ; silicles orbicular, acuminate, with a broad keel, a little longer than the flat pedicel, their lobules connivent, surpassing in length the style. In the Mallee Scrub on the Murray River, towards the junction of the Murrumbidgee. A rare species, almost intermediate between Lepidhnn and Monoploca.
Page 39 - B. diosmifolia, from which it differs as well as from all other Western Australian species of the genus in producing stipules. The pod is yet unknown. 19. Bossiaea distichoclada. Erect, unarmed ; branches and twigs in two rows, terete, grey-velutinous, densely foliate ; leaves small, on very short petioles, bifarious, assurgent, coriaceous, nearly kidney-shaped, at the top awnless and divided into two very short lobes, their margins recurved, above scabrous, on both sides, with the exception of middle...
Page 30 - These rocks, belonging, geologically, to various positions in the order of the strata of which the exterior of the earth is composed. Sandstones are principally silicious, and possess various degrees of induration. These stones weigh from 140 to 150 Ibs. per cubic foot. 188. From the nature of the composition of sandstones, it results that their resistance against, or yielding to, the decomposing effects to which they are subjected, depends to a great extent, if not wholly, upon the nature of the...

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