142 FOREST CULTURE AND 
It would add to the aliment which the natives now 
obtain from these lakes and swamps by diving for the 
roots and fruits of the Nymphe, or for the tubers of 
Heleocharis sphacelata, of species of Aponogeton, or 
by uprooting the starchy rhizomes of Typha augusti- 
folia (the Bullrush), when eager of adding a vegetable 
compound to'their diet of Unio shells, or of water- 
fowls and fishes, all abounding on these favorite places 
of their resort. Trapa bispinosa, 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 Screw-Pines (Pandanus spiralis and Pan- 
danus aquaticus) may often be seen to emerge from 
the banks, the latter, as recorded already by Leich- 
hardt, always indicative of permanent water. The 
young top-parts of the stems of these Pandans, when 
subjected to boiling, become free of acridity, and thus 
available, in cases of emergency, for food. Opilia 
amentacea 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 it is found pleasantly acidulous. It will always 
be acceptable, as a salad or spinach, especially in affec- 
tions from scurvy, and its amylaceous seeds might, 
in cases of distress, be readily gathered for food. <A 
delicious tall perennial spinach (Chenopodium aurica- 
mum) is not unfrequent. Beyond one kind of San- 
darach Callitris no Pines exist in the north, except 
the Araucaria Greyi, noticed on a circumscribed spot 
on the Glenelg river, The true Bamboo (Bambusa 
