42 
Vegetable Productions 
acrid taste, and causes an unpleasant burning sensation 
in the throat. Mr. Backhouse latterly thought our 
kangaroo apple distinct from the £. laciniatum of New 
South Wales. 
The kangaroo apple flourishes best near the coast; 
but I have seen it on the Derwent, ten miles above New 
Norfolk. It is a perennial of rapid growth, but tender; 
a very slight frost injuring it. 
Nat. Ord. Chenopodeje. Goosefoot family. 
Many of the plants of this family may be used as 
pot-herbs ; and some, such as A triplex Halimus , were 
very generally so used many years ago, during a season of 
scarcity in New South Wales, and called “ Botany Bay 
greens/' 
The genera are Chenopodium , Atriplex , Rliogodia , 
Threlkeldia , and Salicornia. The young shoots of 
Salicornia indica I have seen pickled. 
Nat. Ord. Polygonej-:. Buckwheat family. 
Polygonum adprcssum of Hooker, in Botanical 
Magazine. Macquarie Harbour Vine or Grape. 
This is a large climber, introduced into Hobart from 
Macquarie Harbour by Deputy Assistant Commissary 
General Lempriere, about 1831 or 1832; but it also 
abounds in almost every humid forest in the Colony. 
I have seen it near Circular Head, on the Mersey, and 
near the western mountains, fifty miles from the sea. 
The fruit, which is formed of the thickened divisions 
of the calyx of the flower, enclosing a triangular seed of 
unpleasant flavour, hangs in racemes, and is of a sweetish 
taste. At the penal settlement of Macquarie Harbour it 
was made into pies, puddings, &c. 
Mr. Backhouse is in error in supposing this to be 
identical with a small trailing, and very similar plant, 
which grows on the sands near the coast, and which is 
the true P. adpressum of La Billardi^re. 
