388 SOME REPUTED MEDICINAL PLANTS OP NEW SOUTH WALES, 



moist places, is common to all the Australian colonies and Tas- 

 mania, and it may be I'egarded as almost co-extensive with the 

 disease which it is intended to relieve. In the document relating 

 to the Intercolonial Exhibition of 1886-7, it is noticed as remark- 

 able for its sternulatory properties, and recommended for the 

 manufacture of snuff." 



The Rev. Mr. Hartmann says (Brough-Smyth's ^^ Aborigines of 

 Victoria, ii., 173) that this plant is used as medicine by the 

 aborigines of Lake Hindmarsh, but he does not say for what com- 

 plaint. 



Baron Mueller prepared a snuff from this plant many years ago. 



This plant is also found in India, Madagascar and Japan. The 

 natives of India consider it a hot and dry medicine, useful in 

 paralysis, pains in joints, and special diseases ; also as a vermifuge, 

 {Cyclop, of India.') 



55. Petalobtigma quadriloculare, F.v.M., N.O. Euphor- 

 biaceffi, B.Fl. VI, 92. 



" Crab tree," " Native Quince," " Emu apple," " Bitter bark," 

 " Quinine tree." Called " Muntenpen " by some Queensland 

 aboriginals. 



The bark contains a very powerful bitter, said to have the 

 same properties of Cinchona (Hill). Tenison- Woods, however, 

 states (Explorations in Northern Australia) " It is usually 

 covered with fruit like a small yellow plum, of eminently nasty 

 taste. This is, I believe, its only claim to be called ' Quinine.' " 



The stem-bark contains, together with the ordinary plant con. 

 stituents, a camphoroidal essential oil, and an indifiereut bitter 

 principle belonging to the glucosides. (Falco, in Watt's Diet., vi., 

 1st Suppl., 904, where an analysis of the ash of the bark is also 

 given). 



This plant extends from New South Wales to Northern Aus- 

 tralia. 



