petiolum filiformem ipsis duplbreviorem insidentia, subtus pallida et
quasi vernice quâdam cinereâ obducta. INFLORESCENTIA axillaris,
trichotoma, tomentosa, foliis brevior. CALYX valvatus, utrinque
tomentosus.

The wood of the tree has a remarkably loose texture: it is soft, and
brittle, owing to the presence of an enormous quantity of very large
tubes of pitted tissue, some of which measure a line and half across;
they form the whole inner face of each woody zone. When boiling water is
poured over shavings of this wood a clear jelly, resembling tragacanth,
is formed and becomes a thick viscid mass; iodine stains it brown, but
not a trace of starch is indicated in it. No doubt the nutritious quality
of the tree is owing to the mucilage, which is apparently of the same
nature as that of the nearly allied Tragacanth tree of Sierra Leone
(STERCULIA TRAGACANTHA).

It is not a little remarkable that the barrel-like form of the trunk
should be almost exactly paralleled by another Sterculiad, the CHORISIA
VENTRICOSA of Nees, called by the Brazilian Portuguese PAO BARRIGUDO. It
seems, however, that a tendency to a short lumpish mode of growth is
common among the order, as is indicated by the Baobab of Senegal, which
is almost as broad as it is long, and the great buttress trees, or Silk-
Cottons of tropical America.--J. L.]

9TH MAY.--The thermometer stood at 19° in my tent this morning, yet no
ice appeared on the adjacent pool; for this reason, we named that branch
of the river Frosty Creek. In order to leave a more direct track for Mr.
Kennedy to follow with the drays, I made the carts return about two miles
to the spot where we first made these ponds. There I had a trench cut
across the track to the camp we had quitted, and also buried a letter for