AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS PLANTS PROVIDING 

 HUMAN POODS AND FOOD-ADJUNCTS. 



By J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., &c. 



Hooker, in his " Flora of Tasmania," truly remarks that the 

 products of manj plants, although " eatable," are not " fit to 

 eat," and would never be employed as food except in the direst 

 necessity. Australian indigenous fruits, roots, leaves, and stems 

 are nothing to boast of as eatables ; and as in the greater part of 

 this continent there is a very great scarcity, or even an entire 

 absence, of water, an explorer can rarely traverse long distances 

 without taking suitable food with him. 



There is little doubt that most of those which are here recorded 

 as having been utilised for food in other countries are also eaten by 

 the omnivorous Australian aboriginal. Besides these, only those 

 parts of certain plants have been referred to which have been 

 recorded as having been used as food by abox'iginals and colonists. 

 Extended observations must greatly augment the list. 



Knowledge in regard to the indigenous vegetable food resources 

 of these colonies should be considered an absolute necessity by 

 those whose avocations take them out of beaten tracks, especially 

 in the dry country ; while the ordinary citizen may find himself 

 occasionally in a position in which an acquaintance with the 

 scanty vegetable food-products of the bush would be useful to 

 him. 



Aboriginal Method op Obtaining Water. 



We are indebted to the aboriginals for a method of obtaining 

 water, and that from a source in which we should perhaps least 

 look for it. This simple method, which had best be given in the 

 words of those who have had much intei'course with the blacks, 



