
490 RECORDS OF THE S.A. MUSEUM 
_ Fruits of Astroloma humifusum, a prostrate Epserid, sometimes called 
**Native Cranberry’’ were doubtless eaten. 
Kangaroo Apple (Solanum aviculare). Me-a-kec, the kangaroo apple bush. 
Baron von Mueller according to Bentham (Flora Australiensis, IV, p. 447), stated 
that the berry is ovoid, yellow and inedible but that 9. vescwm (Bentham puta it 
under 8. aviculare) has edible globular greenish berries, Bentham says that in 
New Zealand 9, avievlare has yellaw ovoid edible berries. There seems to be 
some doubt as to whether this species which is abundant was eaten in the South- 
met) though a native name for it issuggestive. It fruits from January to the end 
of May. 
Bittersweet (8, wigrum). This species is considered an indigenous one and 
possibly its small fruits were eaten. 
Native Elder (Sambucus gaudichaudiana). The berries ate edible, Bil- 
lordiera cymosa, According to the editor of Wild Life (Vol. 7, No. 8, Aug., 1945, 
p. 226) the fruits of B. scandens are caten by small boys when not too ripe and 
dry—taste not unpleasant, with an acid tang not unmindful of apples, The simi- 
lar fruits of B. cymosa may therefore have been eaten, Possibly these are the 
ngurp of Mrs, Smith—native apples that grow on the coast, 
Rubus parvifolius. We found the small fruits of the Native Raspberry so 
dry as not te be worth eating. 
Serps: Mrs, Smith refers ta Candaart seed. We have been unable to ascer- 
tain what this was uuless it was an Acaeia seed. Acacia longifolia var, Sophorae 
is very abundant on the coastal sand-bills and as far inland as the Belt. Danbt- 
less its seeds were collected, ground and eaten and perhaps those of Golden Wattle 
(A, pyenantha). Nal-a-wort, the broad-leaved Wattle, probably refers to the 
latter species rather than the former, 
Gum; The Golden Wattle and other Acacias provided an abundance of 
slightly sweet gum. Mrs, James Smith mentions ‘‘a basket full of wattle gum’’. 
Roors ano Tusers; The Bulrush (Typha angustifolia) —mir-nat, a bulrush 
—is abundant in watery sitnations and the roots were gathered, G. French Angas 
refers to ita use on the lower Murray (pp. 64 and 59) and near Lake Alexandrina 
(p. 59) where he noticed a piccaninny on its mother’s hack chewing the favourite 
bulrnush root, 4 large net of which was suspended from its mother’s shoulders, 
Tt was tooked, he says, upon a heap of limestone with wood laid over the top 
and then fire applied. Roots were placed ou the stones, another layer of hot stones 
put over them and wet grass used to create steam and then a mound of sand formed 
over the oven. A bulrush root was estimated by Miss J. Cleland to contain 20 per 
cent, of starch, 
Tubers of Trigiochm procera. This plant is common in water, has long strap- 
like leaves and edible swollen roots, 
Rhizomes of the Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum). These are roasted 
and eaten in some parts of Australia and probably were so by the Buandik, as is 
suggested. by its having 4 native name ‘‘maa-aa, the fern root’’, This native word 
appears in the name of Glen’s Station “‘ Mayurra’’* and the district Hundred near 
Millicent. 
Tubers of Scirpus maritinius, This sedge haa edible tubers on its roots. The 
species doubtless occurs in the South-Hast, though we did not eome upon examples 
of it. The hard tubers of this plant from, Hneounter Bay were estimated by Miss 
J, Cleland to contain 25 per tent, of starch, 
a 
2'The vocabulary in Mra. Smith’s book gives ‘‘Maayera—Mr. Glen's station (literally, 
forn straw)?’ Unpublished manuscripty of the late Duncan Stewart contain the following; 
‘“Mua-yera—Werny land’? and ‘'Mayura = Meayera; fern strawa’’, 
