304 
Size. Stem up to 6 inches in diameter and 8 feet high. (Sylvester Browne.) 
This would be on the Mulligan River, in Western Queensland. 
Pitliri and the Aborigines. This is the masticatory of the- aborigines of 
Central Australia, corresponding in this respect to the " Coca " of Peru, the Hashish 
of India, the Betel Nut of the Eastern Archipelago, the " Taezi Kaat " (Catha edulis) 
of Arabia, &c. The drug is in the form of leaves, more or less powdered, mixed with 
finely broken twigs, forming altogether a brown herb. So fine is the powder, and so 
irritating, that the most careful examination of a specimen is attended with sneezing. 
The plant is, as far as known, extremely patchy in distribution, and the blacks prize 
it so highly that they travel enormous distances to procure it; besides, it is a most 
valuable commodity for tribal barter. They gather the tops and leaves when the plant 
is in blossom, and hang them up to dry. They are sometimes sweated beneath a layer 
of fine sand (W. 0. Hodgkinson), dried, roughly powdered, and then packed in 
netted bags, skins, &c., for transport. In Northern Australia the bags are made from 
the split young leaves of Pandanus aquations F.v.M., according to a specimen in the 
Kew Museum. I have examined dozens of packages of Pituri at different times, and 
they have all been made of netted work or canvas. Every bag appeared to be precisely 
the same both in size, pattern and material. The material I believe to be obtained by 
the aborigines from gunny-bags or wool-packs ; these are unpicked, woven into circular 
mats about 6 inches in diameter, and folded over the contained Pituri like a jam-tart. 
The bag is then sewn up with fibre of the same material. 
Sometimes pituri is chewed in company, a quid being passed round from one 
native to another, and when they have had sufficient, one politely plasters it behind his 
ear. It is also smoked, and to prepare the leaves for this purpose they are damped, 
mixed with potash prepared from the ashes of suitable plants (the leaves of a plant 
called " Montera " are burnt for this purpose, according to Mr. Sylvester Browne), 
and rolled up in the shape of a cigar. This is often chewed and the saliva swallowed. 
In small quantities it has a powerful stimulating effect, assuaging hunger, and enabling 
long journeys to be made without fatigue, and with but little food. It is also used 
by the aborigines to excite them before fighting. Mr. Sylvester Browne verbally 
informed me that he has never noticed any abnormal result from the habit, though 
he has heard that a black unaccustomed to the weed becomes intoxicated thereby. 
The observations of travellers as to the effects vary much. It is used to poison emus. 
Wills' diary from Cooper's Creek (p. 283) has the following, under date 7th May, 
1861 :- 
'In the evening, various members of the tribe came down with lumps of nardoo and handfuls of 
sh, until we were positively unable to eat any more. They also gave us some stuff they call ' bedgery ' 
or ' pedgery ' ; it has a highly intoxicating effect when chewed even in small quantities. It appears to be 
the dried sterna and leaves of some shrub." 
" The-pituri consists of leaves broken into small particles and mixed with acacia leaves, small dried 
berries containing reniform seeds (these are pituri seeds J.H.M ) and unexpanded flower buds of the shape 
of a minute caper." 
