15 
Hakea leucoptera R.Br., one of the Needle-bushes, was similarly employed, 
the fleshy roots being stripped. 
In an experiment on a water-yielding Hakea, the first root, about half an inch in diameter and 
6 or 8 feet long, yielded quii-kly, and in large drops, about a wineglassful of really excellent water. 
(Lock'hart Morton, Proc. R. .V. Vir., I860, p. 132.) 
The other plant mentioned by Mr. Bennett is the Kurrajong (Brae hy chiton 
populneus R.Br.). 
Mr. A. T. Magarey, in a paper entitled "Aboriginal Water Quest," in Proc. 
Roy. Geoff. Soc. S.A. (session 1894-5), quotes Eyre, Vol. I, 349-351, for an account 
of these water-bearing roots. 
Speaking of the Desert Oak (Caviarivn D?ca,isneana, F.v.M.j, he quotes Mr. W. H. Tietkens 
("Ooldea Water, re,'i"n S.A.) : Travelling once with a small native boy of about 10 years of age, and 
towards the close of a dreadful day, the waterbag long sinn- emptied and the boy gasping for water, and 
myself no better (the hoy was riding a very unusually tall camel, we still had 15 miles more to travel), all 
at once a cry broke from him, and with one bound he was off that camel and running towards an oak-tree, 
well 4 chains distant at least. 1 stopped the camels and went up to him. He was clawing away at tho 
hot sandy soil, and at last snap. A root one and a half inches thick was broken, a hard pull, and about 8 feet 
of root was exposed, lifting the soil as it was raised. About '2 feet length was broken off and upended into 
the mouth, and a cold drink the result. But not sufficient ; another and another length was broken off till we 
had sufficient. We did not take any more than one root, and T think there were eight or ten more such 
roots enough in abundance for a dozen men The water so obtained was cool, quite cool, oolonr- 
less, and refreshing ; but I have noticed that upon exposure to the lir for a few hours it becomes a pale brown 
colour, such as would t>e noticed in water into which a piece of bark has been dropped. 
BLOODWOOD (Eucalyptus termiiialis), of Central Australia. The bloodwood also is a " water-tree '; 
ral Australian explorers refer to its qualities in this connection. Mr. W. H. Tietkens says of it : 1 
have myself obtained nearly a bucket of water from the bloodwood tree at the Kavvlinson Range. T was 
cutting this tree down for smoke-house purposes, and the water was not required. 
Mr. G. A. Keartland (" Notes on the Zoology of the Great Desert of N.W. 
Australia," Viet. Nat. xxx, 43, says: 
Hi re I ^hot several chestnut-coloured wallabies an adult male of which only weighed about 3 Ib. 
and two species of bandicoots. How they obtained water was at first a mystery, but on wandering near 
camp I found a quantity of the water-bearing mallee, and in many eases the animals had scratched the 
I from the roots, and then, after gnawing through the wood, had sucked the precious Huid. I took 
up ono of these roots (about - feet long), cut the ends with a sharp axe, and stood it in a pannikin. In 
i n ininiitr,, I had about an egg cupful of water. 
Nn\\ \\c cume to the coastal districts, and Fltis, the native vine, has a number 
of species which have thick lianes or stems, which hang pendent from the trees. 
The earliest reference I can find is where the late Dr. George Bennett records that 
Mr. Bidwill's life (he was Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, fora short period 
in 1847, and died in 1853) was saved when he was lost in the bush by the water he 
\v;is able to procure, by incising one of these vines (V. hypoylauca F.v.M.). 
The two photos., taken by Mr. Sidney W. Jackson, show a huge vine of this 
sort growing up into and hanging from a Rosewood tree (Dysoxylon Frasprianum) 
in the Dorrigo brushes, New South Wales. He says this is the largest he has ever 
seen in his wanderings in this State and Queensland. 
Tho second photograph shows him taking a drink from such a vine, and he 
informs me that lie got many drinks daily in this way in the brushes. The vine is 
cut almost through, and again about 3 feet up (see X) from the drip to admit the air. 
