AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. 167 
great beauty (Nyrnpluza stellata and Nymphcea gig anted), which give, 
by the gay display of their blue, pink, or crimson shades of flowers, or 
by their pure white, a brilliant aspect to these lakes ; and even the 
Pythagorean Bean {Nelumbo nuciferd) sends occasionally its fine shield- 
like leaves and large blossom and esculent fruits out of the still and 
sheltered waters. But how much could this splendour of lake-vegeta- 
tion be augmented if the reginal Victoria, the prodigious Water Lily 
of the Amazon River, were scattered and naturalized in these lakes, to 
expand over their surface its stupendous leaves, and to send forth its 
huge snowy and crimson fragrant flowers. It would add to the ali- 
ment which now the natives obtain from these lakes and swamps by 
diving for the roots and fruits of the Nymphcece, or for the tubers of 
tteleociiaris spkacelata, of species of Aponogeton, or by uprooting the 
starchy rhizomes of Typha august if olia (the Bulrush), when eager to 
add a vegetable component to their diet of Unio-shells, or of water- 
fowls and fishes, all abounding on these favourite places of their resort. 
J-rapa bispiuosa, already living, like the Victoria, in the tanks of our 
conservatories, ought, with Trapa natans, for the sake of its nuts, not 
only to be naturalized in the waters of the north, but also in the 
lagoons and swamps of the south. Around these lakes, Screwpines 
\-Pandanus spiralis and Pandanus aquations) may often be seen to 
emerge from the banks, the latter, — as recorded already by Leichhardt, 
always indicative of permanent water. The young top-parts of the 
stems of these Pandans, when subjected to boiling, become free of 
acridity, and are thus available in cases of emergency for food. Opilia 
omentacra and the weeping Eugenia eucalyptoides, together with a native 
Cucumber (Cucumis jucunda), are here among the few plants yielding 
edible fruit. Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) abounds, and in sandy soil 
* is found pleasantly acidulous. It will always be acceptable as a 
salad or spinach, especially in scrofulous affections; and its amy- 
la eeous seeds might, in cases of distress, be readily gathered for food. 
A delicious tall perennial Spinach (Chenopodium auricomum) is not 
^frequent. Beyond one kind of Sandarach Callitris, no Pines exist 
m tlle north, except the Araucaria Greyi, noticed on a circumscribed 
s P°t on the Glenelg river. The true Bamboo (Bambusa arundinacea) 
lmes > a s far as yet observed, only the banks of a few of the rivers of 
Anihem's Land. 
To the pastoral settler, for whom more particularly the generally 
