350 
The I m :n Ml ll iv Leaves as Fooil. "\l\c [mi, (Livistona austral is ^\nrt.) \v\\\c\\ 
plentifully 1.) th<- southward has leaves plaited like a fan; the cabbage of these 
is small. l.nt ex.juisitively sweet, and the nuts, which it bears in great abundance, make 
;i very good food for hogs." (Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, 1770, &c., 
p. 2<)!.) 
The aborigines are very fond of the growing centre or heart of this tree, which 
they eat in a raw or cooked state. But they informed Mr. Backhouse (Narrative, 1835, 
p. 430) that the value of this esculent was not kno.vn to them before the advent of 
whites. 
Considering how fond the blacks are of eating the " hearts " of so many plants, 
and that they ate almost everything that came in their way, it seems difficult to believe 
that the blacks in no part of Australia ate this food before pointed out to them by the 
white man. 
" Several of my companions suffered by eating too much of the Cabbage Palm." 
(Leichhardt, Overland Expedition to Port Essington, 1847.) At p. 41 he says, ''The 
tops of the Corypha Palm eat well, either baked in .hot ashes or raw, and, though very 
indigestible, dH not prove injurious to health when eaten in small quantities." At 
an earlier date (quoted in " Lang's Cooksland," p. 370), he says of the blacks, " They 
seem to have tasted everything from the highest top of the Bunya-tree, and the 
Seaforthia and Cabbage-palm," <fec. 
The Immature Leaves US Plait. The leaves are used for baskets. The 
nnexpanded fronds, prepared by being immersed in boiling water, or boiled, then dried 
and bleached ; the fibre thus obtained is much valued for the manufacture of hats, 
which somewhat resemble the celebrated Panama hats. 
The fibre on the stem is useless to bedding manufacturers and of no use as a 
paper material, as " there is very little fibre left when the silica is got rid of," according 
to a Sydney firm I consulted. 
The District Forester at Windsor reported that for the last twenty years the 
Hawkesbury Agricultural Society has given an annual prize for the best cabbage-tree 
hat, and the prize has been carried off each year by Mrs. Overton, of the Kurrajong. 
The method of making Cabbage-tree hats is recited by W. S. Campbell in Joiirn. 
Roy. Austral. Hist. Soc. v, 200. 
At IVinoMT Charlotte Bay, the young as-yt-t unopened leaf shoot is cut off as low down and as cleanly 
as possible, an-l then smartly tapped upon a piece of log; the shoot thin booomes unfolded, and can then 
split along its natural folds, the outer cortex is next stripped off from each septum of 
lent by in- i-H of a finely-pointed ironwood pointer or pin, or else with a sharp kangaroo-bone drill. These 
cortical stripping* are, by a proco<n to bo subsequently deicribe.1, rolled in the dry, after exposure to the 
-.in. nefeltet : ,mtum nor wafr being m?l. For fkh-neH and dilly-bags. Princess Charlotte Bay and 
rthern Quo-inland generally. (Dr. Roth, in N.Q.Elkioyraphj DnU. : No. 1.) 
Timber. It ia used for making spear-heads by the blacks in Northern Queens- 
land (E. Palmer). Wood or outer part of the stem moderately hard and of a light 
colour. It is occasionally used for walking-sticks, slabs for buildings, or the trunks are 
hollowed out for pig troughs. 
