SPINIFEX RESIN. 

 By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., F.C.S. 



Last year Sir William Macleay was kind enough to give me 

 " a sample of gum used by the blacks for cementing the heads of 

 spears,"* and prepared from Spinifex roots," which had been collected 

 by Mr. Walter Froggatt in the Napier Range (locally called 

 Barrier Range), 100 miles inland from Derby, North-west Aus- 

 tralia. 



I was dubious as to it being the product of a " Spinifex," never 

 having heard of a grass yielding a resin, but Mr. Froggatt is 

 emphatic that he is not mistaken, nor is so experienced a collector 

 likely to be. The Spinifex is probably Triodia irritans, R.Br., 

 but further information on the subject, giving the mode of prepara- 

 tion of the resin would be very acceptable. Mr. Froggatt states 

 that it is obtained from the roots, and local Europeans and abori- 

 ginals all make similar statements as to its origin. 



It is in a cake about 4 inches in diameter, and \\ inch in 

 thickness. The smell is something like beeswax, but at the same 

 time it has an exceedingly disagreeable and persistent odour 

 which is not easily described. It reminds one of the smell of the 

 fabric known as corduroy. It is of especial interest because it is 

 of aboriginal preparation. Its colour is that of a dirty dark 

 bronze-green, or almost of a slaty colour with a little green in it. 

 To the naked eye it looks very like finely chopped hay or grass- 

 seed cemented into a compact mass. It is exceedingly tough, a 

 sharp blow with a hammer on a cold chisel being necessary to 

 fracture it. 



*" The heads of spears from Western Australia in my collection are coated 

 with a hard gum, forming a ridge on one side, in which pieces of glass are 

 impacted." Brough Smyth's Aborigines oj Victoria, d-c, i., 336. Mr. 

 Froggatt informs me that Spinifex resin is put to such a purpose in the 

 locality from which he obtained it. 



