488 AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS HUMAN FOOD-PROVIDING PLANTS, 



15. Aponogeton elongatus, F.V.M., and A. monostachyus. 



Linn., N.O. Alismaceae, B.Fl., vii., 18P. 



The tuberous roots of these water-plants are starchy, and of 

 excellent taste, though not large (Mueller). 



New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Australia [A. 

 elongatus) ; Queensland and Northern Australia {A. monostachyus). 



16. Araucaria Bidwillii, Hooker, N.O. Coniferje, B.Fl. vi., 



243. 



" Bunya Bunya." 



The cones .shed their seeds, which are two to two and a-half 

 inches long by three-quarters of an inch broad , they are sweet 

 before being perfectly ripe, and after that resemble roasted 

 chestnuts in taste. They are plentiful once in three years, and 

 when the ripening season arrives, which is generally in the month 

 of January, the aboriginals assemble in large numbers from a 

 great distance around and feast upon them. Each tribe has its 

 own particular set of trees, and of these each family has a certain 

 number allotted, which are handed down from generation to gener- 

 ation with great exactness. The bunya is remai-kable as being the 

 only hereditary property which any of the aborigines are known 

 to possess, and it is therefore protected by law. The food seems 

 to have a fattening effect on the aborigines, and they eat large 

 quantities of it after roasting it at a tire. Contrary to their 

 usual habits, they sometimes store up the bunya nuts, hiding 

 them in a water-hole for a month or two. Here they germinate, 

 and become offensive to a white man's palate, but they are 

 considered by the blacks to have acquired an improved flavotir 

 (Hill). Dr. Bennett mentions that after an indulgence in this 

 exclusively vegetable diet they have an irresistible longing for 

 flesh, and that in order to satisfy that craving, cannibalism used 

 to be frequent amongst those tribes who were visitors (for the 

 purpose of eating the bunya-bunya seeds) of those tribes in whose 

 territory the bunya-bunya trees grow. 



Queensland. 



