Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0363
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[Page 363]
259
Some account of New Holland.
in the West Indies Indian Kale were in tolerable plenty as was also a sort of Purslane the other plants we eat were a kind of Beans very bad a kind of Parsley & a plant something resembling spinage which two last grew only to the Southward I shall give their botanical names as I beleive none some of them were never eat by Europeans before first Indian Kale (Arum Esculentum) Red flowerd purslane (Sesuvium Portulacastrum) Beans (Glycine speciosa) Parsley Apium ) Spinage (Tetragonia cornuta) fruits we had still fewer to the NorthSouthward was one something resembling a heart cherry only the stone was soft (Eugenia which had nothing but a light acid to recommend it to the Northward again a kind of Figs growing from the stalk of a tree very indifferent (Ficus caudiciflora) a fruit we calld Plumbs like them in Colour but flat like a little cheese and another much like a damson both in appearance & taste both these last however were so full of a large stone that eating them was but an unprofitable business Wild Plantanes we had also but so full of seeds that they had little or no pulp.
[Margin note] Timber
For the article of timber there is certainly no want of trees of more than midling size & some in the valleys very large but all of a very hard nature our carpenters