FLINDERS AND MITCHELL RIVERS, FOR FOOD, MEDICINE, &c. 97 
fruit on the ground to free them from their hairy covering: 
they bite off one end and press the pulpy substance and — 
s into their mouth, and throw away the outer rind, which is 
23. Cycas media, R. Br. <A graceful palm, with a crown 
of fruit growing at the base of the leaves, consisting of round, 
smooth nuts, the size of a walnut. Tree from 12 to 16 feet 
high, very common on the coast near Cooktown. The kerne 
of the nuts are poisonous, unless prepared by water and fire. 
After breaking them up and drying them, they are placed in a 
dilly-bag in water for several days, to extract the bitterness ; the 
product is then hammered or pounded for some time, and subject 
to several courses of roasting and pounding before being fit to eat 
The blacks in Wide Bay used the nut in this way. James Morrill, 
the shipwrecked sailor, mentions that the natives about the Bur- 
dekin River use em in a similar manner. White men have 
suffered very much from accidentally or ignorantly using the nuts 
of Cycas media. 
24. Cymbidium canaliculatum, R. Br., Prod. 331. F. Aus. 
vol. vi. (orcuipEm.) An orchid growing in the hollows of trees, 
with fleshy drooping leaves, 1 foot long, and a handsome scarlet 
hanging flower. The tubers of this plant are used by the blacks 
in Wide Bay, and by other coast blacks in the North. 
25. Cynanchum floribundum. R. Br. Prod. (ASCLEPIADACE. ) 
Native name on Cloncurry “ Thooromia.” A woody annual plant, 
erect, 2 to 3 feet high ; leaves lanceolate, opposite ; flowers small ; 
pods 1} inch long, triangular pointed or tapering to a point, yellow 
when ripe, and full of fine cotton and small seeds, growing In pulrs, 
flat sides, opposite, terminal on small branchlets ; pods and leaves 
=e of milk, eaten raw when young. It is said to fatten the 
ives, 
Th 
be found. Mostly eaten raw, larger ones roas 
27. Dioscorea sativa, Frag. vol. ii, p. 73. Native name 
on the Mitchell, “ Karro.” A strong-growing annual = a 
2 H : 
des, very bitter. They are gathered and stored in sand about 
Mele oka camps. Whesdiad hen the tubers are first roasted, then 
