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The tap-roots of young trees, and the young roots of old trees, are used as food 
by the aborigines. (Macarthur.) When boiled they have a flavour similar to that of 
turnips, but sweeter. 
A correspondent from the Bega district informed me, many years ago, that this 
tree seems hardly, if at all, known in the South Coast district as " Kurrajong," but it is 
well known us " Yam-tree," on account of the large yam-like root the tree possesses, 
at all events in the young state, which root is locally called a yam, and it is stated that 
these were formerly much sought after by the aborigines for food. In the case of some 
small trees, less than 1 inch in diameter, which were dug up for planting, they had yams 
from 8 to 12 inches long, and 2 or 3 in. diameter, weighing several pounds. He tells 
me they have been got 8 to 10 Ib. in weight, and are not despised by Europeans. 
The outside skin or bark of these yams can be easily removed, and looks like the skin 
of a radish. The inside is beautifully white, a little sweetish in taste, but otherwise 
rather insipid. He states : " I think them on the whole rather palatable, but cannot 
learn whether the aborigines used to eat them raw or subject them to some process of 
cooking." 
The following notes refer to a closely allied species, B. Delabechii F.v.M., of 
Queensland : 
'' It is said that the soft juicy tissue of the stem can be eaten, and that many a 
wanderer in the bush has staved off hunger by its means. The young shoots and roots 
of young trees are agreeable and refreshing. The nuts also are eaten." (Thozet, 
Palmer, also Tenison- Woods, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. vii, p. 573.) 
Thozet speaks of the natives cutting holes in the soft trunk where the water 
lodges and rots the trunk to its centre. These trunks are so many artificial reservoirs 
of water. When a tree has been cut its resources are not exhausted. The tired hunter, 
when he sees a tree that has been tapped, cuts a hole somewhat lower than the old 
cuts, and obtains an abundant supply of the sweet mucilaginous juice afforded by the 
tree. This is the tree from which the notorious M. Rougemont speaks of having obtained 
water for a considerable period. 
Seeds. " I succeeded here (near the south coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, opposite Sir Edward 
Pellew Group) in cooking the seeds of Sterculia which had recently been gathered ; first by separating 
them from their prickly husks, and then roasting them slightly, and pounding and boiling them for a 
short time. They produced not only a good beverage with an agreeable flavour, but ate well, and appeared 
to be very nourishing. They contained a great quantity of oil." (Leichhardt's " Overland Expedition, 
Moreton Bay to Port Essington," p. 411.) 
" We refreshed ourselves with a pot of Sterculia coffee " (op. cit., p. 422). 
I have another reference from the same work, but I have lost the page, " . . . . made, when 
slightly roasted, a fine coffee, and the remaining grounds were good to eat." 
I do not know what Sterculia or Bmchychiton was used; it may have been 
B. populneum. 
The seeds of some species, and especially that of the African Cola-nut (Cola or 
Sterculia acuminata) contain thein or caffein (the active principle of tea and coffee 
practically the sn,mo) in large quantity, as has been known for a very long period. " In 
