134 On a netv Species of Manna 



tract of country in this district is entirely occupied by a 

 " scrub," as it is called in Colonial language, consisting of the 

 inallee plant. Eucalyptus dumosa, the leaves of which at 

 certain seasuns become covered with this species of manna, 

 which is known to the natives by the name of Lerp. the /being 

 pronounced like the Italian yl. This substance was first ob- 

 served by Mr Cay in the latter part of the year 1844, when 

 he explored a considerable district lying between lat. 36^ 20', 

 and 37° 10' S., and long. 142° 40', and 144" 20' E. in search of 

 pasturage for sheep. He returned in 1845 to occupy the 

 ground, and, in the course of his journey was obliged to leave 

 his party, in pursuit of a native guide who had decamped 

 with a gun. In mentioning this incident, Mr Cay writes 

 (25th March 1845) : " 1 was rather cold that night, as I had 

 come off after him in my sliirt-sleeves ; moreover, 1 had no 

 dinner, but I got plenty of lerp. Lerj) is very sweet, and 

 is formed by an insect on the leaves of gum-trees ; in size 

 and appearance like a flake of snow, it feels like matted wool, 

 and tastes like the ice on a wedding-cake." 



On Mr Cay's aiTival in Scotland in 1847, he gave some 

 further particulars regarding this substance, stating that it 

 was produced in great abundance, and covered large tracts 

 of the scrub like snow ; that it is very nutritive, the natives 

 becoming fat during the season in which it is found, and that 

 he himself had subsisted for a day or two upon it ; that it 

 adheres with very little tenacity to the leaves, and is imme- 

 diately washed off by a shower of rain. 



As it appeared from this description, that the substance 

 was unknown in this country, Mr Cay, at his father's re- 

 quest, wrote to his overseer in Australia, who sent over the 

 quantity of lerp which has formed the material fur my ob- 

 servations, accompanied by a letter, dated 25th February 

 1848, of which the following is an extract : — " The Blacks 

 say the krp is not in any way produced by an insect, but 

 that it is a spontaneous production of the mallee or gum- 

 scrub when very young, say a foot or eighteen inches high, 

 and that it grows on either side of the leaf ; that old mallee 

 or mallee about eighteen inches high, does not produce lerp. 



