according to local observation, invariably barren. The leaves, which,
when young, are densely hairy on the underside, on maturity become so
rough and coarse that they are used by the blacks as a substitute for
sandpaper in the smoothing of weapons. The fruit is small, dark purple
when ripe, sweet, but rough to the palate.

During the fulness of the wet season, a diminutive orchid, the roots,
tuber, leaf, and flower of which may be easily covered by the glass of a
lady's watch, springs upon exposed shoulders of the hills. So far it has
not been recorded for any other part of Australia, or, indeed, the world.
Science has bestowed upon it the title of CORYSANTHES FIMBRIATA, for it
is all too retiring of disposition to demand of man a familiar name.
Probably it may be quite common in similar localities, but its size, its
brief periodicity, and inconspicuousness, contribute to make it, at
present, one of the rarities of botany. Beneath a kidney-shaped leaf a
tiny, solitary, hooded, purple flower shelters with becoming modesty, the
art of concealment being so delicately employed that it seems to preserve
its virginal purity. There is proof, however, that the flower does
possess some "secret virtue," for if the plant be immersed in glycerine
the preservative takes the hue of the flower. Nature having ordained that
the plants should be elusive, they appear in remote spots and unlikely
situations with foothold among loose and gritty fragments of rock, and
with cessation of the sustaining rains disappear, each having borne but a
single leaf and produced but a solitary flower. The leaf does not seem to
be attractive to insects, nor is the flower despoiled or the tuber
interfered with. The first dry day sears the plants, and succeeding days
shrivel them to dust and they vanish. What part in the great scheme of
Nature does the humble flower fulfil? Or is it merely a lowly decoration,
not designed to court the ardent gaze of the sun, but to brighten an
otherwise bare space of Mother Earth with a spot of fugitive purple?