CX FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Esculent Plants 



§ 15. 

 A List of some of the Esculent Plants of Australia. 



In the course of reading preparatory to undertaking this Essay, I found scattered notices of 

 edible and other plants, which I thought might be worth bringing together, and thus form the 

 skeleton of an Australian ' Flora Cibaria,' for the use of future inquirers. It is extremely incomplete 

 as an exposition of the uses to man of the Australian Flora, both because it omits many plants that 

 have escaped my notice or memory, more that I know nothing of, and perhaps a still greater number 

 that come under the category of being " eatable but not worth eating." I have not alluded to 

 pharmaceutical plants : such may exist, and multitudes of the weeds, seeds, and roots of Australia 

 will no doubt enjoy a more or less substantial reputation as drugs, for a period, and then be con- 

 signed to oblivion. This is the pharmaceutical history of the plants of all countries that have been 

 long inhabited by civilized man, and Australia will form no exception to them. The fact being, that 

 of the multitude of names of plants that appear in Pharmacopoeias, the number of really active and - 

 useful plants, known to be such, is extremely small. 



I have been greatly indebted to Backhouse's Notes on the Edible Plants of Tasmania (Ross, 

 ' Hobarton Almanack'), and to Gunn's and Mueller's various writings, for much of the following 

 information. 



Atherosperma moschata. Bark used as tea in Tasmania. 



Tasmania aroiuatica. "Pepper-tree." Drupe used as condiment. 



Cardamine hirsuta. This and other species afford excellent pot-herbs when luxuriant and flaccid. 



Nasturtium terrestre. Ditto. 



Nyniphasa gigantea, aud another species. Boots and fruit eaten. 



Nelumbium speciosum. Seeds eaten raw, and roasted as coffee. 



Hibiscus, allied to heteropliyllus ? Yields a sorrel. 



Billardiera mutabilis. Berries acid and pleasant. 



Pittosporum acacioides. Yields an excellent gum. 



Vitis sp. Tubers and fruits eaten. 



Meliacea?. Various species of Trichilia ? bear acidulous drupes. 



Wallrothise sp. Fruit edible. 



Triphasia glauca. A small lemon, Mueller. 



Oxalidis sp. Leaves acid (sorrel). 



Geranii spp. parviflorum, and others. Boots eaten by Natives. l 



Adansonia Gregorii. Dry, acidulous pulp of fruit eaten. 



Bombax. Wood used for boats. 



Brachychiton sp. Wood full of mucilage ; seeds eatable, and make a good beverage. 



Corasa alba. Cape Barren Tea. 



Castanospermum edule. Moreton Bay Chesnut. 



Acacia. Various species yield excellent eating gum, as A. mcllissima, of which the gum is soft 



and sweet. 

 Acacia Sophoraa. Seeds eaten by natives of Tasmania. " Boobyalla." 

 Acacia pendula. Myall, cattle are fed on its leaves, Mitchell. 

 Erythrina. Wood used for shields and boats. 

 Canavalia Baueriana, The Mackenzie Bean. 



