BY N. DE MIKLOUHO-MACLAY. 347 



A shoi't visit to Melbourne in the beginning of this year, gave me 

 the opportunity of consulting Baron von Mueller about some 

 other plants from the Maclay-Coast, of which T had the fruits 

 preserved in alcohol. Having neglected to obtain in New Guinea 

 in addition to these fruits, the leaves and flowers of the same 

 plant, the very incomplete collection would have been quite value- 

 less, if it had fallen into less competent hands than those of 

 the Baron von Mueller, and I feel very glad of being enabled to 

 express my gratitude for his kind help. So, only through the 

 kind assistance of these friends, I am able to give here the 

 following list of useful plants, which are of great value in the 

 household of the natives of the Maclay-Coast. 



I. Plants used as Articles op Food by the Natives in 



ORDER OF their DOMESTIC IMPORTANCE. 



A. Plants cidtivated in plantations, or round the huts in villages. 



1. Cocos nucifera (Mtmki) (1) bearing fruits the whole year 

 round, is, without doubt, of the greatest value as food for the 

 natives. The pulp of the nut is eaten in all stages of maturity. 

 The scraped pulp of old nuts is used in cooking on account of its 

 oily quality, but oilmaking and oil were not known to the natives 

 before my arrival in 1871. There are two varieties of the cocoanut 

 palm : the ordinary, with the large green nuts, and the other 

 with the shorter stem and much smaller, orange coloured nuts. (2) 



2. Galadium esculentum (Bau), 3 or 4 var., some of them of 

 large size, is next to the cocoanut, the principal article of food of 

 the natives, from March to August, being usually planted in 

 October. 



(1) The native names of plants in the dialect of Bongu (of the Maclay- 

 Coast) are added in parenthesis. 



(2) The larger nuts of the ordinary green kind contains in the average 

 1200-1600 grammes of water, the smaller, orange coloured ones, in the average 

 not more than 150 grammes. About the preparation of food by tlie Papuans 

 andotlier details, vide my paper: EthnologisheBemerkungeniiber die Papuas 

 der Maclay-Kiiste, publ. in Natuurkundig, Tijdschrift of Batavia, 1875. A 

 review of which is given by Dr. J. C. Galton in "Nature '"of June 1st 

 and 8th, 1875. 



