378 



BOOT CEOPS. 



roast these seeds, crack the husk between two stones, and eat 

 them hot. They taste something like a yam or hard dry potato. 

 The trees bear cones only once in four years, during a period of 

 six months. This season is held as a great festival by the 

 aborigines of that locality, called by them Bunga Bunga, and 

 they congregate in greater numbers than is known in any other 

 part of Australia, frequently coming from a distance of 300 miles. 

 They grow sleek and fat upon this diet. An Act has been passed 

 by the legislature of the colony, prohibiting, under heavy 

 pains and penalties, the demolition of those trees, being the 

 natural food of the natives. 



The common people eat the seeds of the red sandalwood (Adenan- 

 thera Pavonind) in the South of India. The pulp of the fruit of 

 the Adansonia digitata, or monkey bread, is also used as an article 

 of food. 



SiNQHARA OR "Water Nuts. — The large seeds of Trapa hicornis, 

 a native of China, and of T. lispinosa smdnatans, species indigenous 

 to India, are sweet and eatable, and the aquatic plants which 

 furnish them are hence an extensive article of cultivation. In 

 Cashmere and other parts of the East they are common food, 

 and known under the name of Singhara nuts. In Cashmere the 

 government obtains from these nuts £12,000 of annual revenue. 

 Mr. Moorcroft mentions that Bunjeet Sing derived nearly the 

 same sum. Erom 96,000 to 128,000 loads of this nut are yielded 

 annually by the lake of 0 oiler alone. The nut abounds in fecula. 

 In China the kernel is used as an article of food, being roasted or 

 boiled like the potato. The seeds of various species of Neliwi- 

 lium, natives of the East Indies, Jamaica, and the United States, 

 also form articles of food. The fruit of JSf. speciosum is sup- 

 posed to be the Egyptian bean of Pythagoras. The petioles and 

 peduncles contain numerous spiral vessels, which have been used 

 for wicks of candles. The fruit of Willugliheia edulis, a native 

 of the East, as its name implies, is eatable. The kernel of the 

 mango can be reduced to an excellent flour for making bread. 



Not only from the Lichen tribe, but also from the Algse, fungi, 

 mosses and ferns man derives nutriment and valuable products. 

 Some of the cryptogamic plants form considerable articles of 

 commerce, particularly as food plants, affording gelatinous and 

 amylaceous matter, and being useful in medicine and the arts. 



Nosfoe eduli is used in China as food ; Gelidium corneum enters 

 into the formation of the edible sv/allows' nests of the Japanese 

 islands. Agar-agar moss is shipped from Singapore to the extent 

 of 13,000 tons a-year. Irish moss, Iceland moss, Ceylon moss, and 

 some others, are also of some importance. Iodine and kelp are 

 prepared to a considerable extent from sea weeds; one species 

 {Fucus tenax) furnishes large supplies of glue to the Canton 

 market, and the orchilla weed is of great importance to the dyer. 

 It is principally as food that I have to speak of them in this 

 section. 



In some of the islands off the Scotch coasts, sea- wrack {Fucus 



