PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS SECTION B. 
2 7 
Queensland lias always been fortunate in having distinguished 
workers in the domains of the chemistry and therapeutics of our 
native plants. The pride of place must be given to the pioneer work 
of our lamented friend Dr. Joseph Bancroft, to whose cordial greeting 
at this meeting many of us had looked forward. His son, Dr. T. L. 
Bancroft, has worthily followed in his father’s footsteps, and already 
has to his credit a splendid record of work on the pharmacology of our 
native plants. The late Karl Theodore Staigeralso did splendid work, 
and now w r e welcome Dr. Lauterer as a co-worker. 
I speak to-day more from a chemical than a botanical standpoint, 
but in alluding to Queensland workers I surely must not omit reference 
to the economic work of the distinguished Colonial Botanist of the 
colony, Mr. F. M. Bailey, to whose name I would like to link that 
of Mr. John Shirley, an erudite lichenologist, and the indefatigable 
G-eneral Secretary for his colony of this Association. 
I now proceed to discuss the various groups of Australian plant 
products. 
HUMAN FOODS AND FOOD ADJUNCTS (INCLUDING MANNAS). 
Our indigenous food-plants do not afford the chemist promise of 
great discoveries, hut a number of them offer interesting research 
material to the student. Many of the fruits, &c., eaten by the abori- 
gines are of varying degrees of unpalatableness and indigestibility, 
and proximate analyses might bring to light the causes of these 
flavours, while a chemical demonstration of their food value would he 
undoubtedly interesting. Such an investigation might indicate that 
some of these foods are more nutritious than they are at present 
supposed to be, and might be a handmaid to agriculture, by indi- 
cating plants whose products might he expected to be improved by 
cultivation. 
The aborigines were almost omnivorous as regards vegetable pro- 
ducts, but they had some staple (though very poor) foods, and I would 
like to see analyses made of them. Such are Munyeroo ( Portulaca 
oleracea , Linn.), the small black seeds of which are largely 
used by the natives of the interior; the small fruits of the Native 
Melon ( Cucumis trigonus , Boxb.), which are eaten in spite of their 
bitterness. They should he used with caution, and, like Solatium 
fruits, never eaten unless dead ripe. The matter is again referred to 
under “ Drugs.” The Nardoo ( Marsilea Drummcndii , A. Br.), which, 
after the expenditure of an utterly disproportionate amount of labour, 
yields a small quantity of dirty-looking flour. 
An interesting field for investigation would be the starches of 
some of our food plants, particularly from the point of view' of the 
microscopist. Take, for example, the seeds of the Moreton Bay 
chestnut ( Castanospermum austral e, A. Cunn.), Macrozamia, the roots 
of Crinum , JBlechnum serrulatum , liich. (“ Bungwall”), which are but 
a selection from a very large number. 
A large number of seeds, roots, &c., of our native plants, possess 
(like the pith of the sago palm) injurious properties unless they are 
washed or parched. Here is an extensive field for investigation, and 
among such plants, regularly used for food by the aborigines, may be 
