Another and closely related member of the same Family (Myrtaceae) is
BARRINGTONIA SPECIOSA, which, so far as local experience is to be
trusted, is restricted to the beaches, growing lustily in pure sand at
the very verge of high-water mark. The glossy leaves of this
many-branched tree often exceed a foot in length; the flowers, too, are
large and singular in style, the petals being comparatively insignificant,
while the numerous stamens attain a length of four inches and are of a
lovely shade of red. Like its relative, the cockatoo apple, the flowers
of the Barringtonia have a meaty smell, which seems to attract many
species of insects. In keeping with other characteristics, the fruit is
large, consisting of a thick, woody covering, as if Nature designed that
the single seeds should be adequately protected during a protracted
oceanic drift. It is often cast up on the sand, but the seed does not
germinate as consistently as that of the cannon-ball-tree; but when it
does it rarely fails to become established.

Two species of Ficus deserve to be mentioned, though this catalogue does
not claim to be exhaustive. FICUS FASCICULATA, as the title implies,
bears its inedible fruit in bundles, branches, trunk, and exposed roots,
being alike fertile, and is almost as retentive of life as the cockatoo
apple. Opposita is remarkable for varied form of foliage, referred to
particularly elsewhere, and for the sweetness of its fruit.

One of the loveliest and most remarkable plants of the beach is the
seacoast laburnum (SOPHORA TOMENTOSA), with its pinnate leaves of sage
green, hoary with silvery fur as soft as seal-skin, and bearing terminal
spikes of golden flowers with scent invoking slight comparison with
mignonette. The thick, silky leaves, the yellow flowers, and the strange
pods, are distinctive qualities, which atone for the absence of the
special sweetness of the garden favourite. The pods begin as slender,