yielding Food for Man . 
37 
Nat. Ord. Rutace;e. Rue family. 
Correa alba. Cape Barren Tea. 
The leaves of this species, which is common all along 
the sea-coast, forming a small shrub from 2 to 4 feet high, 
have been used by the sealers on the islands in Bass’s 
Straits as a substitute for tea. 
Nat. Ord. Leguminosje. Pea family. 
Although we possess about 60 species of this family, 
exclusive of the Acacice , none of them yield good edible 
seeds. 
Of the genus Acacia , the Aborigines were in the 
habit of collecting the pods of the species Sophora or 
Boobialla , (which is a common shrub, growing from 6 
to 15 feet high, on the sand-hills of the coast,) when the 
seeds were ripening, and, after roasting them in the ashes, 
they picked out the seeds and ate them. 
The seeds of A. verticillata (prickly Acacia), and some 
other common species, might doubtless be eaten in the 
same way. A gum, resembling in character and pro¬ 
perties the gum-arabic of commerce (which is produced 
by a species of this genus), exudes abundantly at certain 
seasons from the bark of several species of Acacice , par¬ 
ticularly from those known as Silver and Black Wattles, 
{A. affinis and mollissima ), and might be collected in 
considerable quantities. 
Nat. Ord. Rosacea. Rose family.- 
Rubus macropodm . Common Bramble. 
The common bramble of the Colony has a well- 
flavoured fruit, but the seeds are large and hard : it bears 
abundantly in many situations in January and February. 
The finest fruit in the Colony, however, is produced 
by a small species of this genus (Rubus Gunnianus) bear¬ 
ing yellow flowers, found commonly on the summits of 
all the mountains, and also in the level country of the 
