26 USEFUL PRODUCTS 



which the natives extract nutritious food ; the pigs are also fond of them : 

 and besides these, there are other wild roots used as food by the natives. 

 The Erythrcea Australis is stated to be a good substitute for hops, and used 

 as such ; and one species of tobacco is indigenous to the colony. There is 

 a native celery which forms a good substitute for that of Europe : two 

 varieties of it are mentioned — the corma, of which the roots are eaten 

 by the natives after being pulled ; and the kukire, the root of which 

 resembles the carrot in appearance, with the smell and colour of the 

 parsnep. The wild carrot is also an excellent vegetable, and from its root 

 rich wine has been extracted. Of the Hedeoma latifolia, Dr Lindley 

 remarks, that its half-ripe fruits, if sent to Europe, would give several 

 original and valuable scents to the perfumer. 



The Vasse apple, of the size of a peach, is stated, when boiled with 

 sugar, to be an agreeable sweetmeat. It is of a deep orange colour, and 

 closely resembles the Kojonup peach, another delicious fruit. The tree 

 which bears the latter grows to the height of twenty or thirty feet, with a 

 trunk from nine inches to a foot in diameter, and a fine bushy top. 

 Another fruit of the Mesembryanthemum genus is of a less pleasing flavour ; 

 but one of the same species, resembling the English gooseberry, is said to 

 be delicious. A nondescript shrub, about five feet in height, bears a 

 pleasant fruit, as large as a middle-sized plum, of a fine purple colour, 

 covered with a rich bloom, and having a stone similar to the plum. The 

 bark of the root of the " doatta," a small kind of Eucalyptus, is much 

 relished by the natives, having a sweet and pleasant taste ; as is also the 

 trunk of the red gum ; and its leaves washed in water form an agreeable 

 beverage. 



They also collect a description of manna from the leaves of the York 

 gum-tree, which yield a considerable quantity of saccharine matter. The 

 common green wattle of the genus Acacia is found plentiful on the 

 alluvial plots of the SAvan, and the bark is much used for tanning ; the 

 gum-wattle of the same order produces so great a quantity of gum as to 

 demand the attention of exporters. Yet another shrub of this order is 

 found in the Vasse District, and produces galls similar to those of the oak, 

 which might also be collected for exportation. The gum of some of these 

 species is used by the natives as food ; and the seeds, when ground, give 

 them a tolerable substitute for flour. 



The natives of King George's Sound subsist chiefly upon roots. The 

 plant most abundant, and which forms the principal article of food 

 throughout the year, is called mynd. It resembles the common rush in the 

 leaf, but has a bulbous root. The bulb is of a fine orange red colour 

 inclining to lake, about the size of a small short onion. The leaves, 

 although resembling the rush, are rounder and finer in texture; the 

 flowering vessels grow up in a single stalk, three or four feet high, which 

 is covered near the top with twenty or thirty flowers of a deep pinky- 

 brown, almost approaching to black, unlike any plant known in Europe. 

 The mynd, however, is mostly eaten by the women and children, or very 



