"In the flowers of a dwarf species of banksia (<i>B. ornata</i>) there is a good deal of honey, and this was got out of the flowers by immersing them in water. The water thus sweetened was greedily swallowed by the natives. The drink was named <i>beal</i> by the natives of the west of Victoria, and was much esteemed."
<hw>Beal</hw> (2), <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Belar</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Bean, Queensland</hw>, or <hw>Leichhardt</hw>, or <hw>Match-box</hw>, <i>n. Entada scandens</i>, Benth., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. Though this bean has two Australian names, it is really widely distributed throughout the tropics. A tall climbing plant; the seeds are used for match-boxes.
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 425:
"The seeds are about two inches across, by half-an-inch thick, and have a hard woody and beautifully polished shell, of a dark brown or purplish colour. These seeds are converted into snuff-boxes, scent-bottles, spoons, etc., and in the Indian bazaars they are used as weights. (`Treasury of Botany.') In the colonies we usually see the beans of this plant mounted with silver, as match-boxes. The wood itself is soft, fibrous, and spongy."
<hw>Bean-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. called also <i>Moreton Bay Chestnut, Castanospermum australe</i>, Cunn. and Fraser, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>; a tall tree with red flowers and large seed-pods. The timber of young specimens has beautiful dark clouding.
<hw>Bear, Native</hw>, <i>n</i>. the colonists' name for an animal called by the aborigines Koala, Koolah, Kool-la, and Carbora (<i>Phascolarctus cinereus</i>). It is a tree-climbing marsupial, about two feet in length, like a small bear in its heavy build. Its food is the young leaves of the Eucalyptus, and it is said that the Native Bear cannot be taken to England because it would die on board ship, owing to there being no fresh gum leaves. The writers are incorrect who call the animal a sloth.
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 317
"Our coola (sloth or native bear) is about the size of an ordinary poodle dog, with shaggy, dirty-coloured fur, no tail, and claws and feet like a bear, of which it forms a tolerable miniature. It climbs trees readily and feeds upon their leaves."
1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 57: