Indigenous Fibrous Plants. 205 



Art. XII. — Indigenous Fibrous Plants. By F. A. CorbetTj 



Esq. 



[Read before the Royal Society, December 17th, I860.] 



Ix the report from the Exploring; Expedition under the 

 command of ^Mr. Burke, dated 30tli October, 1860, we arc 

 informed that the mallow grows in remarkable kixuriancc in 

 the Ijarren country beyond the Darling. Mr. Wills, the 

 astronomer and surveyor of the party, says, " It clothes the 

 banks of Wonaminta Creek, and grows to an immense size 

 on nearly all the creeks out here.^' This statement has 

 suggested to me the submission to the meeting of specimens 

 of oakum and rope made of the fibres of the mallow, also of 

 specimens of paper, oakum and rope manufactured from 

 another indigenous plant, which, it will be observed, is a 

 description of rush or flag. At any time it would be interest- 

 ing to contemplate the possibility of a tract of the interior 

 of this continent, at present little better than a desert, pos- 

 sessing valuable natural resources in the way of vegetable 

 production, but it is peculiarly so at the present moment, 

 when an inquiiy relative to our indigenous fibrous substances 

 is being conducted by a committee of this Society at the 

 instance of the Imperial Government. 



The fibrous properties of the mallow, as Avell as those of 

 the Lepidosperma gladiata, the other plant alluded to, were 

 first made known to Em'opeans by JMr. Alexander Tolmer, of 

 Adelaide. It appeared, however, in the course of some dis- 

 cussions which took place in the Legislative Council of South 

 Australia, on an application made for leave to bring in a Bill 

 to secure to that gentleman a patent right in his discovery, 

 that the aborigines were acquainted with some of the useful 

 properties of these plants. They Avere, in fact, used by them 

 in making baskets and fishing-lines, and, on this account, it 

 seems that a select committee, to whom the matter was 

 referred, could not agree to recommend the grant to Mr. 

 Tolmer of the exclusive right of using, manufacturing, and 

 exporting these plants. The justice of this refusal has been 

 questioned by the friends of Mr. Tolmer, who hold that a 

 discovery was undoubtedly made by him, inasmuch as lie 

 went beyond the blacks in the application of the properties 

 of the plants, and in ascertaining by experiment their fitness 

 for the manufactm'c of paper, pasteboard, ])apier mache, 

 oakum and rope, all articles of great commercial importance. 



