
ABORIGINES OF THESSOUTH-EasT oF SOUTH AUSTRALIA 489 
HCHINODERMATA ; 
Adelcidaris tubaria Lamarck—Rough Spined Urchin, 
Amblypmoustes pallidus Lamarck—Pale Urchin. 
Amblypneustes ovum Lamarck—Small Urchin, 
Heliocidaris armigera Agassiz—Common Large Urchin (very like edible 
European in size and shape)- 
Tue VecerAs.e Foops of THE AsBoricInEs. 
The extensive drainage system and subsequent pastoral and agricn/tural 
activities haye markedly affected the indigenous vegetation; but even present-day 
observation reveals various sources of possible food supplies which the aboriginal 
no doubt utilized. These species are, of course, now restricted more to the scarcely 
used range and coastal strips of the country. 
The following list comprises food plnats recorded as being present during 
our recent abservations together with reference to their use in the literature, It 
will be seen that the foods of vegetable origin are few in number and, with some 
exceptions, not abundant. The only really abundant vegetable foods were the pig- 
face fruits, muntries, native ‘‘currants’’, and the roots of the bulrugh, 
Feuits: Mistletoe berries were probably all edible. Three species were noted, 
namely Loranthus pendulus, growing on Stringy-bark (Hucalyptus obliqua) on 
the ranges; DL. preissu, growing on Blackwood (Acacta mélanoxylon) ; and Phrygi- 
lanthus euoalyptifolius growing on Striugy-bark, Blackwood and Natiye Cherry 
(Hxocarpus cupressiformis), The fleshy pedicels of the fruits of the Native Cherry 
are themselves edible but so amall ag to seem scarcely worth eating, The trees are 
not now very abundant. This is presumably the ‘‘tar-ang, a cherry” of Mrs. Smith, 
Pig-face, the ‘‘ Hottentot Fig’’ of G. F, Angas, a Mesembryanthemum (Car. 
pobrotus aequilaterus)—keeng-a, pigface (a plant)—probably is the native fig 
referred to by Mrs. James Smith (p. 43) when she notes that in 1846 a young 
man from MacFarlane’s Station, Mount MeIntyre, walking to Guichen Bay was 
helped by 4 native who, ‘‘guided him to the natives’ track, which was easier walk. 
ing than through the scrub’’, and ‘‘gathered native figs for him when the damper 
was finished’’, 
Nitre-bush (Nitraria. schobert) sometimes called native plum. Black records 
this species far the South-East but we did not come across it. Its fruits are edible 
and as G, French Angas says (p. 56), referring to it on the Lower Murray, ‘'‘it 
has a flavour partaking at once of salt, acid, and sugar’’, 
Muntries (Kunzgea pomifera). Munter, a kind of native apple growing on 
the sea-coast. These grow near the coast on sandy soil, the branches being pros- 
trate; they sometimes cover several aquare yards of ground. The small fruits 
are abundant and have an apple-like taste and texture. Mr. Schultz says the 
fruits are ripe during February, March and April. G. French Angas (p. 65) 
mentions that the natives of the Cooroug disperse themselves over the sand-hills 
in search of the ‘‘monterries’’, returning im the evening, with their baskets filled, 
to the samp. This shows that the source of food supply was abundant while it 
lasted. 
Native ‘‘Ourrants’’ (Leucopogen parviflorus). Neoor-le, the white currant 
bush. These bushes are abundant on the coastal sand-hills of the Woakwines and 
the Belt from February to the end of April. They have abundant small, white, 
currant-like fruits and must have supplied quite a considerable amount of food 
when available, though there seems no reference to them in Literaturs, 
