in a new unsettled country like Northern Queensland should stimulate to further exertion those who either by taste or accident have become acquainted with the practical resources of our flora.
The vegetable foods here referred to have been divided into three categories:—
- Those used without any preparation.
- Those which require baking only.
- Those which, being poisonous, require to go through a process of maceration, pounding, and desiccation.
The first category includes roots and bulbs, which, like the native yam and water-lily, are very plentiful, and available at any time. The fruits, though more numerous, do not offer advantages equal to the others, as they mature only at certain seasons of the year.
The second category includes the root of a bean and the tubers of a rush, which are also plentiful, and easily obtainable.
The last category is the most important, as it furnishes an inexhaustible supply. These plants, with the exception of Entada scandens, besides being abundant, are of wide distribution over the northern part of this continent.
Should the publication of these particulars be instrumental in affording relief to the suffering, or in saving the lives of any lost in the trackless forests of the interior, the writer will feel amply rewarded.
WITHOUT ANY PREPARATION.
Roots or Tubers.
1. Hibiscus heterophyllus, Vent. Native sorrel. Aboriginal name, Batham.
Found on banks of rivers and creeks, occasionally on plains. A rather tall shrub, part of the stem and young branches covered with small prickles. Leaves entire or lobate. Flower white and pink or yellow, with purple centre. (Roots of young plants, young shoots, and leaves eatable.)
2. Sterculia trichosiphon, Benth. Platan-leaved bottle-tree. Ketey.
In scrub land. A tree of a beautiful pyramidal growth when young; becoming enlarged in the centre with old age. (Roots of young plants eatable.)
3. Sterculia rupestris, Benth. Bottle-tree. Binkey.
Generally found in stony scrub land, remarkable by its enlarged trunk, similar in shape to a lemonade bottle; some measure six to eight feet in diameter. (Roots of the young plants eatable.)
The natives refresh themselves with the mucilaginous sweet substance afforded by this tree, as well as make nets of its fibre. They cut holes in its soft trunk, where the water lodges and rots them to its centre, thus forming so many artificial reservoirs. On their hunting excursions afterwards, when thirsty, they tap them one or two feet below the old cuts and procure an abundant supply.
4. Cissus opaca, F. Muell. Round yam. Yaloone (large), Wappoo-wappoo (small).
Found principally in clayey soil. Small creepers. Leaflets usually three, four, or five, dark-green and smooth. Berries black and globular. Tubers very numerous, some weighing five to ten pounds. Eaten in hot weather like water-melons (the small and young are the best); they are, however, difficult to digest. Probably the yam alluded to by Leichhardt, in his Journal of an Overland Expedition, page 150. He says: "Both tubers and berries had the same pungent taste, but the former contained a watery juice, which was most welcome to our parched mouths."
