358 SOMK REPUTED MEDICINAL PLANTS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 



their native Materia Medica, and the difficulty of obtaining 

 reliable information is enhanced (as I have experienced to a slight 

 extent) through the extreme willingness of town blacks to impart 

 information in regard to any plant which may be shown to them, 

 which impresses one with the thought that they are too willing 

 to oblige. But perhaps this is mainly owing to asking them 

 leading questions. 



With the native Materia Medica of India, for instance, the 

 case is very different. While some remedies are evidently used 

 fancifully, and others for every disease to which the human frame 

 is liable, much of the knowledge in i^egard to it is exact, the out- 

 come of intelligent observation and enquiry, and the work of the 

 European practitioner to classify the native drugs is a compara- 

 tively easy one. 



There is an important matter which I have often heard referred 

 to by medical men and others. It may be only an ingenious 

 surmise, but I am inclined to think it is more than that, as 

 e^'idence to prove its truth is from time to time brought forward. 

 It is this. Native Australian drugs will probably be found pecu- 

 liarly efficacious in the treatment of diseases, or modifications of 

 diseases, which are co-extensive with their distribution. 



The number of really useful New South Wales drugs, as far as 

 our knowledge at present extends, is, as will be seen, but very 

 limited, and in regard to these even, our knowledge lacks precision. 

 It will thus be seen how little trodden has been this particular 

 field of enquiry. 



Yet it is not too eai'ly even now to attempt to systematise such 

 knowledge as we possess, — this has been the object in view in. 

 submitting this humble contribution. 



1. Acacia spp. "Wattles." 



The barks of all wattles ai-e more or less astringent, and are 

 used in domestic medicine to make decoctions or infusions which 

 are employed in diarrhoea or dysentery, perspiring feet, some 



