300 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND CH. xm 



provision than we were, ate them heartily, and we con- 

 sidered their constitutions stronger than ours, until after 

 about a week they were all taken extremely ill of indigestion ; 

 two died, and the rest were saved with difficulty. 



Other useful plants we saw none, except perhaps two, 

 which might be found so, yielding resin in abundance. The 

 one, 1 a tree tolerably large, with narrow leaves not unlike a 

 willow, was plentiful in every place into which we went, 

 and yielded a blood-red resin or rather gum-resin, very 

 nearly resembling Sanguis draconis; indeed, as Sanguis 

 draconis is the produce of several different plants, this may 

 be perhaps one of the sorts. This I should suppose to be 

 the gum mentioned by Dampier in his voyage round the 

 world, and by him compared with Sanguis draconis, as 

 possibly also that which Tasman saw upon Van Diemen's 

 Land, where he says he saw gum on the trees, and gum lac 

 on the ground. (See his voyage in a collection published at 

 London in 1694, p. 133.) The other 2 was a small plant 

 with long narrow grassy leaves and a spike of flowers 

 resembling much that kind of bulrush which is called in 

 England cat's tail : this yielded a resin of a bright yellow 

 colour perfectly resembling gamboge, only that it did not 

 stain ; it had a sweet smell, but what its properties are the 

 chemists may be able to determine. 



Of plants in general the country affords a far larger 

 variety than its barren appearance seemed to promise : 

 many of these no doubt possess properties which might be 

 useful for physical and economical purposes, which we were 

 not able to investigate. Could we have understood the 

 Indians, or made them by any means our friends, we might 

 perchance have learnt some of these ; for though their man- 

 ner of life, but one degree removed from brutes, does not 

 seem to promise much, yet they had some knowledge of plants, 

 as we could plainly perceive by their having names for them. 



Thus much for plants. I have been rather particular 

 in mentioning those which we ate, hoping that such a 

 record might be of use to some or other into whose hands 



1 Eucalyptus. 2 Xanthorrlwsa. 





