248 



met witli at the Kverard Range, I. noticed a piece of lighted 

 bark was their constant companion. 



To find that the natives of tlie Evorard Range and Blyth Range 

 tribes use tobacco was a surprise to me. It struck me as 

 peculiar when I noticed their lips and the corners of their moutli 

 being colored with a yellowish-green rim, and attributed it at 

 once to some peculiar food they miglit have been eating, but later 

 on I discovered that its true cause was the sucking of a roll of 

 native tobacco. The crude method of the preparation of this 

 tobacco has been described in "Extracts from my Diary,'' 

 and the way it is used is depicted on plate 29, where it will 

 be noticed two aborigines have a roll of the narcotic; lying on 

 their lips. 



Whilst these tribes have discovered the stimulating properties 

 of Niaotiana liuaveolens, they do not seem to know the )no)'e 

 powerful narcotic of " pituri," Duhoisia Uopiooodii, wliich also 

 occurs in many places throughout the same regions. 



Both plants were found from the Everard Ra)ige to the Barro-\v- 

 Range and throughout tlie Victoria Desert along our route, 

 although in varying abundance and under difterent conditions of 

 growtli. 



The Nicotiana suaveoleus grew most luxuriant.ly about tiic 

 .soakages near the Everard and the Blyth Ranges, where some of 

 its oval and glabrous leaves readied a lengtli of over ten inches 

 V)y a width of nearly four inches, and the plants stood over four 

 feet high ; but at the Cavenagli and the Barrow Ranges and 

 among the sand-dunes of the Victoria Desert the plant becomes 

 diminutive and dwindles down to a height of ten inches, with 

 leaves of from a-half to one inch in lengtli, wjiich ai'e here also 

 more rounded and pubescent. 



With the Barrow Range and Victoria Desert tribes 1 did not 

 notice the use of this tobacco, and am certain that it is unknown 

 to the tribes of the Eraser Range and of the Hampton Plains. 

 The plant was not noticed by me inucli further than the Eraser 

 Ilange, and in my opinion is likely to occur only sparingly in the 

 country between Yilgarn and the Murchison. I did not tind it 

 at all along this route, but as nearly all the herbaceous plant-life 

 was extinct at the time of our journey through that district my 

 not Knding it cannot be taken as a proof of its non-occurrence. 

 As far as I could ascertain tlie Murchison lilacks are not ac 

 ([uainted witli tlie plant. 



The use of the native tobacco as a stimulant is, as far as I 

 know, only habitual with the Everard and Blyth Range tribes. 

 Tn their districts the plant certainly grows to perfection in the 

 liumid soil near the soakages of the ranges, which conditions, 

 however, may be found equally favorable at some of the ranges 



