1U12 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



NATIVE OR BLACKFELLOWS' BREAD. 



By D. Mc Alpine. 



At various times specimens of the so-called native bread have 

 been sent to me witli requests for information as to its nature and 

 uses, and it seemed desirable to bring together for the benefit of 

 readers of the Journal, the main facts known at present concerning 

 it. And this is all the more necessary since the most extraordinary 

 views are put forward by some as to what it really is, the imagination 

 being allowed free play in accounting for it, and statements have 

 been made without steps being taken to test their accuracy. Strange 

 and mysterious are the terms often applied to it, and yet when its 

 growth is followed like that of any other organism, with the aid of a 

 scientific use of the imagination, its life-history is found to be com- 

 paratively well known. Being undei'gi"ound and often of a large 

 size, it naturally excited wonder when turned up by the plough or in 

 other ways, and although its fangus nature has long been known, it is 

 only within recent years that light has been thrown on the particular 

 form it assumes when it has reached its full development. 



It has been regarded as of the nature of a gall, and even as the 

 root of some flowering plant, but it is most commonly considered as 

 akin to a truffle from its underground habit. Even among scientific 

 men the latter was the prevailing view at first, but all these guesses 

 have now been proved to be wrong, and the discovery of the fructifi- 

 cation allows it to be characterized as definitely as any other plant. 

 It is purely an Australian production and from its scientific interest, 

 as well as its use by the aborigines, deserves our careful consideration. 



History. 



The earliest account of this vegetable growth was given just seventy 

 years ago in 1834 when Mr. Backhouse described it in a notice on 

 the esculent plants of Van Diemen's Land. At that time very little 

 was known about it, and since the remai'ks are of historic interest and 

 have been often referred to, they may be given in full. He writes : — 

 "This species of tuber is often found in the Colony, attaining to the 

 size of a child's head ; its taste somewhat resembles boiled rice. 

 Like the heart of the tree fern and the root of the native potato 

 (Gastrodia sesamoidesj cookery produces little change in its character. 

 On asking the aborigines how they found the native bread, they 

 universally replied, 'A rotten tree.' On the dry open hills about 

 Bothwell it is to be detected in the early part of summer, by the 

 ground bursting upwards as if with something swelling under it, 

 which is this fungus." The reference to a rotten tree evidently 

 meant that it was found in the vicinity, but subsequent writers on 

 quoting this, fell into the error of supposing that it either grew on or 



