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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Banyan, a species of fig (Ficus bengalensis) of the family Moraceae (mulberry family), native to India, where it is venerated. Its seeds usually germinate in the branches of some tree where they have been dropped by birds. The young plant puts forth aerial rootlets, which, on reaching the ground, take root to form secondary trunks to support the giant horizontal limbs. Branches from these trunks ultimately send down more such prop roots until the banyan crowds out the host tree and becomes grovelike in appearance, often covering large areas. This undergrowth is sometimes trimmed to form arbors. Alexander the Great is said to have camped under a banyan tree that was big enough to shelter his whole army of 7,000 men. The seeds frequently germinate on walls and buildings, causing considerable damage, as do the related strangling figs of tropical America.

Description source: www.encyclopedia.com

Image source: Queensland

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Traveler’s tree, (species Ravenala madagascariensis), plant of the family Strelitziaceae, so named because the water it accumulates in its leaf bases has been used in emergencies for drinking. This, the only Ravenala species, is native in Madagascar and cultivated around the world. The trunk resembles that of a palm tree and attains a height of more than 8 m (26 feet). At the top of the tree are banana-like leaves, with pale midribs that give a fan-like appearance. The leaves are 4 to 5 m long, and each leaf base, shaped like a huge cup, holds about 1 litre (about a quart) or rainwater. The large flower cluster contains white blossoms and light blue seeds.

Description source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

Image source: Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 1225

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Casuarina cristata is an Australian tree of the sheoak family Casuarinaceae known as belah. It is native to a band across inland eastern Australia.

The Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel described the belah in 1848, and it still bears its original name. It is called Muurrgu or Murrgu in the Yuwaalaraay dialect of the Gamilaraay language around Walgett in northwestern New South Wales. Belah is an aboriginal name; other common names include scaly-barked casuarina, scrub she-oak, billa, ngaree, bulloak and swamp oak.

Belah grows as a tree reaching 10-20 m in height. The tree has a dark greyish brown scaly bark, and its pendulous branches have a weeping habit. The true leaves are tiny scales along the branchlets.

The range is from Clermont in central Queensland south through to Temora in southern New South Wales. It is an important component of the engangered Brigalow ecological community of

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Paw-Paw Culture.
(From Queensland “Agricultural Journal.”)

Notwithstanding that the pawpaw will almost grow and thrive in sand, it, like other plants, likes good soil. The position chosen for planting should be sheltered from cold, westerly winds, as the tree is apt to be seriously injured by frost and cold winds. The seed should be sown in September in rich soil in a sheltered spot. When the seedlings have attained a height of from 6in. to 9in. they may be removed to their permanent positions. It is better to plant close – say, 6ft. apart – which will allow for thinning out, a the first flowering of the trees (which will occur in ten or twelve months after planting out), of those bearing the long-panicled flowers, which are mostly male, the female flowers, if any, on them bearing poor fruit. Each young seedling should be shaded with a

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