8 
plants that will produce the latter effect, but I have never seen or 
0 £ them. Going into the interior from the coast about 16° or 
17° south, you will meet natives whose “ possible sacks ” or “ dilly- 
bags ” contain frequently pituri or something very like it. On 
making them understand that you wish to know where it grows, they 
will point southwards and say “ tir-r-r-r-r-r,” meaning a long way. 
This, I am inclined to think, is the same plant as is used by their 
countrymen in the South. 
Pituri is valued at as high a rate in the North as in the South* 
and cared for accordingly. In the north it is not unusual to find a 
description of mild tobacco in the dilly-bags of the natives along with 
a pipe or pipes — one kind being not unlike a cigar-tube made by the 
Toredo navalis in perforating the roots of the mangroves, destroying 
the root and leaving a shelly crust behind it; but as this description 
can only be procured on salt water, natives in the interior make a 
rude pipe of a soft stone, the tube usually very short, of a pithy wood 
or a joint of a reed. I think it very likely that the natives have 
acquired this habit from Europeans, as we know that the “ Beagle ” 
was at anchor in the Victoria Elver for some months, thirty years 
ago, and it is possible that the crew communicated with the natives, 
as they had plenty of time and opportunities. Such a novelty as 
smoking would be sure to find adopters among the tribes in the 
vicinity. As for tobacco, they would naturally, after exhausting 
their small supply, try the plants around, till one was found with the 
necessary qualities. The pituri proper, I am inclined to think, grows 
between the latitudes of 21° to 29° south, in poor and sandy soil. 
There were other novelties in the dilly-bags of the natives at 
times which we did not understand and the owners would not, in a 
few cases explain, as they persistently kept out of sight. 
In the Lancet of January 18, 1879, a letter from Dr. 
Murray appeared, and I have his liberty to use it in any paper 
I may write on the subject : — • 
Seeing a notice of pituri in your journal of December 21st, 1878, 
I at once recognised an old friend about which I picked up a few 
interesting facts while travelling many years ago in Central Australia. 
First, with regard to name : “ pituri ” appears intended, but fails, 
to convey the native sound of the word. Howitt, the able leader of 
our party, who spoke the Cooper’s Creek dialect fairly well, always 
spelt it “ pitchery,” which conveys the true sound, the accent being 
placed upon the antepenult “ pitch,” as in almost all trisyllabic words 
of this langauge. “ Pitch'ery,” therefore, or the more modern form, 
“ pitchiri,” is correct if it be desirable to maintain the native pro- 
nunciation of such words. 
This substance was apparently unknown in 1862 (the year of 
Howitt’s expedition) to natives south of the drainage line of Cooper’s 
Creek, which trends S.W. from its sources in the dividing ranges of 
Queensland (lat. 23°, long. 145° about) to its terminal expansion and 
desiccation in South Australia (lat. 30°, long. 137° about). It is 
probable that its use formerly extended south of this boundary, and 
that it receded before the white man’s tobacco, now the chief luxury 
and current coin amongst the blacks of the out settlements. We 
often questioned the Cooper’s Creek natives as to where they got 
/ 
