^^g^'.'l Kebl,b, Aboriginal Plant Names. y^ 



ba, baba, paba, bapa, abba, bab, baab, book, bar pan, 

 par ppe, pap pi, and in the Kulin as ba boop, pa pa, pa pun, 

 par bine, &c., &c. As a pure labial sound like this can be 

 uttered by a toothless infant, it is very interesting and 

 suggestive to find the child referred to by the Kulin people 

 as boo pup, bo pup, boo boop, boo poop, &c., &c. It also occurs 

 in wye boo, little ; gan bo, one ; bo eurt, grass, &c. ; kuan boo, 

 smaller kind of flying squirrel ; bo yung, bandicoot, &c., &c. 

 The reference in the case of the Twiggy Aster may be to the 

 small twigs alluded to by its specific name, ramulosa, or in both 

 to their small flowers. 



Pike, Common Yellow Lily, Biilhine btdbosa, Haworth, comes 

 from beek, bik, &c., "earthy." It was eaten by the natives. 

 Wy ett, referred to in the list as a young species of Eucalyptus — 

 a meaning implied by its roots — wy, small (c/. wye boo, small) ; 

 and ett or eurt, a shrub or tree. The weet weet thrown by 

 the natives, and consisting of a double cone at the end of a 

 pliable shaft about twenty-one inches long, was probably 

 made by shaping a rooted sapling. 



The Yarra tribes had as their harbingers of summer and 

 winter two seasonal plants — wet o mel len. Greater Clematis, 

 Clematis aristata, R. Brown, and gin in ee moon goon, Common 

 Heath, Epacris impressa, Labill. At first sight wet, weet, or 

 wy ett would seem to mean a small shrub {supra cit.) ; but on 

 mature consideration I am inclined to ascribe it to weing, fire. 

 Mel len comes from the same root as mul in mul loko, and 

 means to defer, put off ; as, too, in kul mul, blood (kul, a wound, 

 mul, after) ; mol ong mol ook, afternoon ; weet mul leen, 

 tempest ; weet mul hn, hot wind ; win malee, north ; and nger 

 vein (nger weing, evening, nger, after, weing, heat). Note 

 how weet mul lin, the hot wind, has by circumstance and 

 familiarity come to mean north (win malee), the hot north wind 

 being the summer wind. It is to be noted, too, that wattee 

 muUen, is the sarsaparilla. Gen in ee moon goon is gan un im 

 un gan, in which only one root — gan, first — is significant. The 

 repetition of un is a comparative process similar to that given 

 by Green for wor brin un, tired, which is compared by repeating 

 the last syllable, as wor brin un un un, excessively tired. The 

 reference is to the " first " bloomer, the common heath being 

 one of the first winter flowers. In this connection it may not 

 be out of place to quote ber ring, midwinter, as well as wattle 

 — a winter flowerer. That the native marked out seasons by 

 the germination, growth, flowering, and seeding of the plants, 

 trees, and shrubs about him is shown by those words which 

 interpret spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Moodee e ram 

 (mort rum), spring, comes from mortt, a seed, and rum, life, 

 meaning life from a seed ; mer rim nger wein, summer, comes 



