BY FRITZ NOETLING, M.A., Ph.D., ETC. 295 



also to have been consumed, though both apparently does 

 not come anywhere near in importance to the other three 

 classes. 



E.— INSECTS. 



The fatty, oily larva of Zeuzera eucalypti was when 

 found apparently much appreciated, though it probably 

 did not enter into the regular diet, as well as the eggs of 

 ants. 



F.— VEGETABILIC FOOD. 



Their vegetabilic food was unquestionably much less 

 varied than their animalic food, the forest of Tasmania 

 being devoid of those kind of trees like the oak, the 

 beech, and the hazel tree, whose nuts formed such an im- 

 portant part in the diet of palaeolithic man in Europe (i). 

 Though, according to Brough Smith, io8 different kinds 

 of edible plants occur in Tasmania, this does by no 

 means prove that all served as food to the Aborigines. 

 The principal plants used were — 



1. Pteris esculenta (the common or bracken fern). 



2. Cibotium billardieri (the common fern tree). 



3. Alsophila australis (the rarer species of fern tree). 



4. Myhtta australis (the so-called native bread). 



5. Fucus palmatus (the sea wrack). 



6. Gastrodi sessamoides (the native potato). 



Besides these six species they consumed the tubers of 

 several of the orchids; mushrooms, the seeds of several 

 species, particularly of the Acacia sophora and others, 

 which were freelv eaten. 



(i) How important the role these nuts played in the house- 

 hold of palaeolithic man must have been will be seen best if we 

 examine their fuel value^per pound. According to Langworthy 

 the fuel value per pound of 



Filbert nuts is 3,43^ cal. 



Beech nuts 3^2^3 cal. 



Acorns 2,718 cal. 



If we consider that the fuel value per pound of beef is 1,130 cal., 

 that of wheat flour 1,640 cal., and that of potatoes only 385 cal., 

 the importance of the above kind of nuts in the diet of palaeo- 

 lithic man is obvious, particularly if we remember that beech 

 and oak grow abundantly in Central Europe, and that a good 

 harvest was always certain. 



