282 THE POOD OF THE TASMANIAN ABORIGINES. 



kangaroos, the wallaby, the wombat, and Phalangista (i) 

 are all vegetabilic feeders, and certainly formed the staple 

 articles of food. On the other hand, they apparently did 

 not disdain insectivorous animals like Perameles Gunnii 

 (the kangaroo rat). Considering that they made such a 

 distinction in the selection of meat, and that they showed 

 an unquestionable preference for herbivorous animals, it 

 may be questioned whether they were really so fond of 

 " the deadly snakes and the guana " as Melville states 

 them to be. 



With regard to the vegetabilic food, Ling Roth is 

 certainly mistaken if he says that the edible productions 

 abound in their island, and the error seems to have arisen 

 out of Gunn's (2) paper and the list of "' Plants that 

 ' could ' have been used for food by the original Tas- 

 manian natives," supplied by the Government Botanist 

 of Victoria to Brough Smyth (3). No doubt all these 

 plants occur in Tasmania, but whether they were 

 habitually used as food by the Aborigines seems rather 

 doubtful (4). 



All writers agree that their chief vegetabilic foods 

 were the pith of the fern tree, the roots and young shoots 

 of the braken fern, besides various fungi, for instance the 

 trufifle-like Mylitta australis; the leaves and tubers of 

 various orchids, particularly those of Gastrodi sessa- 

 moides, the roots of Geranium parviflorum; the seeds of 

 different acacias all these entered largely into their diet. 

 But there is no doubt that the most common of all these 

 vegetables obtainable all the year round were the ferns, 

 Cibotium Billardieri, Alsophila australis. and Pteris 

 esculenta. 



(i) In Australia Phalangista is usually, but wrongly, called 

 opossum. 1 need hardly to point out that it has nothing what- 

 soever to do with the true " opossum," which are a family of the 

 Rapacia, of which the Dasyuridae are the Australian represen- 

 tatives, while the Phalangista belongs to the Carpophagae. 



(2) Remarks on the indigenous vegetable productions of 

 Tasmania available as food for man, Tasman. Journ. of Nat. 

 Science, 1842, Vol. I., pag. 35-52. 



(3) Aborigines of Victoria, Vol. II., pag. 394. 



(4) When Dr. Campbell states that the Aborigines consumed 

 yj different kinds of vegetables, he probably referred to Brough 

 Smyth's list, overlooking that this was a list of plants that 

 " could " have been used, but not a list of plants that " were " 

 used. Inter lineas, it may be remarked that this list comprises 

 not less than 108 species. 



