2 
By no means the least interesting vegetable substance used by the 
Blacks was Grass-tree gum, the yellow resin of the XanthorrlicRa. The com- 
position and uses of this interesting substance will be found in a very old 
paper by Mr, A. Langier — Chemical Examination of the Yellow Resin of the 
Xanthorrhcea^ and two recent essays by Mr. Maiden On Grass-tree Gum} 
The resin was used by the Aborigines as a cement in the manufacture of their 
weapons and implements, its place amongst some tribes being taken by the 
exudation of species of Myoporum, and with others by Spinifex resin. A com- 
paratively recent paper on the last-named has been written by Mr. Maiden.^ 
Two papers are catalogued relating to that widely spread fodder-plant 
the Nardoo {Marsilea quadrifolia, Linn.), the spore-cases of which were 
ground into a kind of meal and used as food. The first of these is by Mr. D. 
Moore — On the “ Nardoo'' Plant of Eastern Australia,^ and the second by 
Dr. T. L. Bancroft — On the Habit and Use of Nardoo} 
To those interested in the use of narcotics by our Blacks, several 
papers on Pituri {Duboisia Hopiooodi, F. v. M.) will be found. The active 
principle is known as Pituria or Piturine, and is said to produce the numbing 
sensation of Aconita. It seems to be alhed to Nicotine. The papers in 
question are by Mr. S. M. Curl — On Pituri, Sfc. f Mr. A. W. Gerarrd — 
Preliminary Examination of Pituri or Pitchere Mr. J, P. Murray — 
Pituri f Prof. A. Liversidge — The Alkaloid from Pituri f and Messrs. 
Langley and Dickinson — Physiological Action of Pituri and NicotineP 
The inscribed Cave-paintings of Northern Australia have recently 
received investigation at the hands of the llev. J. Mathew, who has success- 
fully mastered the supposed inscriptions. A detailed account of his researches 
will be found in the Cave Paintings of Australia, their Authorship and 
Significance^ 
It has but recently become known that the Tasmanians used the 
womerah in the propulsion of their spears. Mr. A. J. Taylor has expressed 
his belief in such a use in a paper entitled — The Use of the Womerah or 
“ Throwing-stick" by the Aborigines of Tasmania^ 
* Nicholson’s Journ. Nat. Phil, and Arts, 1812, XXX, p. 310. ^ N. S. Wales Agric. Gazette, 1894, V, 
Pt. 11, p. 748, ; Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1890, V (2), Pt. 3, p. 429. ’ Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 
1890, IV (2), Pt. 3, p. 639. * Technologist, 1865, V, p. 90. ® Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1894, VIII (2), 
Pt. 2, p. 215. ® Trans. N. Zealand Inst, for 1878 [1879], XI, p. 411. " Pharm. Journ., 1879, IX (3), p. 251. 
8 Ibid., p. 638. 9 Journ. E. Soc. N. S. Wales for 1880 [1881], XIV, p. 123. Journ. Chem. Soc. (Abstr.), 
1890, LVIII, p. 1178. ** Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1893, XXIII, No. 1, p. 42. Proc. 
R. Soc. Tas. for 1892 [1893], p. 84. 
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