22 MEDICINAL PLANTS OF QUEENSLAND, 



as the European fruit is placed among medicinal plants on account 

 of its juice being grateful to the parched palates of persons 

 suffering from fever, it is surely not out of place to notice our 

 Queensland tree in these notes. 



The bitter bark of PetalosUgma quadriloculare, F. v. M., or Emu 

 Apple, is often used as an astringent by bushmen. The bitter 

 principle contained in the bark is not considered of value by 

 medical men. The bark also contains a quantity of starch. 



Phyllantlius simplex, E-etz. A small herb about a foot high, 

 with, while young somewhat flattened stems ; leaves small in two 

 opposite rows, flowers in clusters. The fresh plant mixed with 

 equal parts of cumin seeds and sugar and made into an electuary 

 is administered by the natives of India in doses of a teaspoonful 

 a day in cases of gonorrhoea. According to Eoxburgh the fresh 

 plant bruised and mixed with buttermilk is used as a wash to 

 cure the itch in children. This plant is met with throughout 

 tropical Queensland. 



Croton. Several trees of this genus found in the Queensland 

 scrubs, furnish what is called Queensland Cascarilla Bark. 



Aleurites molicccana, Willd., (Candlenut). A large txee often 

 met with along the Herbert Eiver, &c., is cultivated in some 

 countries for the sake of its nuts. The tree is too well known in 

 Queensland to need description as it may be seen in most of our 

 gardens usually under the name A . triloba, Forst. The kernels 

 when dried and stuck on a reed are used by the Polynesians as a 

 substitute for candles, and as a article of food in New Georgia. 

 These nuts resemble walnuts somewhat in size and taste. When 

 pressed they yield a large pro^Dortion of pure palatable oil, used 

 as a drying oil for paint, and known as country walnut and artist's 

 oil. In Ceylon it is called Kekune oil, and in the Sandwich 

 Islands, where it is used as a mordant for their vegetable dyes, 

 Kukul oil. In these Islands alone, about 10,000 gallons are 

 annually produced. The root of the tree affords a brown dye, 



