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BErOKT OF THE VICTOKIAN GOVERNMENT BOTANIST. 199
]\Iocker-nut {Carya tomentosa), of the delicious Pecan-nut {Carya oli-
vifurmis), the Butter-nut {Jiujlans cinereci), the Black Walnut (/. nigra),
the Himalayan Oak {Qnercun incand), the Chestnut Oak (Q. Castanea),
the American Swamp Oak (Q. Prhios), the Bur Oak (Q. macrocarpa)
the White Oak (Q. alba, a most valuable timber tree), the Jersey Pine
{Plnus inops), the American Pitch Pir (P. rigida), the Douglass Pine,
the noble Himalayan P. longifoUa, the Chinese Pir, the Balm of Gilead
Pir (P. balsamea), the double Canada Balsam Pir (P. Fraseri), the
West India Pencil Cedar (Juniperus Bernmdiand), and the American
Cherry Birch {Betula lento).
Many other highly valuable trees have been lately introduced, but
not really in masses. Secured were, however, large supplies of the
seeds of Finns Qerardiana (the Tibet Ree or Shnngtee), which fui'-
nishes sweet edible nuts for Indian and Persian bazaars ; and grains
also were obtained in quantity of Juniperus rdigiosa (the Himalayan
Pencil Cedar). Many good-sized plants of the latter have been several
years on our lawns. Nearly all the tree seeds from the United States,
were obtained through the generous aid of Professor Asa Gray, of
Boston,
Perhaps the most remarkable of all plants lately brought under cul-
tivation is the deadly 'poisonous Physostigma veneuosum, the Calabar
Ordeal Bean, a plant of the utmost importance in ophthalmic diseases.
The large hard bean was buried fully four years in soil before it ger-
minated.
As deccnnia roll on, many of the trees, which under great efforts are
now introduced, will undoubtedly bear prominence in our forest culture,
—a great subject, which more and more presses on legislative attention,
since already so much of the native timber in all the lowlands has been
consigned to destruction. If, in densely-populated countries like
Belgium, one-fifth of the whole of its territory is scrupulously kept
under forest culture, it ought to be a final aim, in a far hotter clime, to
maintain a still greater proportion of its area covered by w^oods, if the
comforts and multifarious wants of a dense population are to be timely
provided for. It is especially in the western and northern parts of
Victoria where exertions in this direction have to be made ; it is there
where extensive shelter and retention of humidity is needed, and there
also where artesian borings on spots, indicative as eligible, would vastly
promote tlie raising of forests.
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