BY J. H. MAIDEN. 531 



The currant-like fruits are sub-acid, and were, and perhaps still 

 are used for tar("s, puddings and preserves ; the leaves taste like 

 sorrel. 



All the colonies except Queensland. 



143. Mylitta australis, Berh., (Syn. Notihydnum australe, 

 F.V.M.), N.O. Fungi. Muell. Fragm., xi., 101. 



"Truffles" or "Native Bread." 



This insipid underground fungus is generally met with by 

 accident. When growing rapidly it sometimes causes the ground 

 to crack, and may thus be discovered by a careful observer, as it 

 probably was by the aborigines, who used it as food. It should 

 be boiled, though cooking changes its character but little. It is 

 said to taste like boiled rice. 



" The largest I have seen is about the size of a child's head, but 

 a much larger one was dug up at Melbourne some months ago" 

 (Woolls, 1859). 



It has a black skin which drops off in little fragments, enclosing 

 a veined white mass, which at first is soft, and has a pecular acid 

 smell, but when dry becomes extremely hard and horny (Treasury 

 of Botany). Mr. Brough Smyth likens its appearance to unbaked 

 brown bread. 



Backhouse states that the natives always informed him they 

 obtained it from the neighbourhood of a rotten tree. 



An interesting note on a specimen from Tasmania, by Mr. Wm. 

 Southall, F.L.S., will be found in Pharm. Journ. [3], xv., 210, and 

 a drawing of a section of a young plant is also given. 



Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. 



144. Myoporum debile, R.Br., (Syn. M. diffusum, R.Br. ; 

 Pogonia debilis, Andr. ; Andreusia debilis, Vent. ; Capraria 

 calycina, A. Gray), N.O. Myoporinese, B.Fl., v., 8. 



" Amulla " of the aborigines. 



The fruit, which is a quarter of an inch in diameter, is slightly 

 bitter to the taste. It is eaten by the aboriginals. 

 New South Wales and Queensland. 

 35 



