A Similar Plant, Also Found In Central Australia, Is
"Munyeru." In The Centre Of This A Little Bag Of Black Seeds Grows;
These Seeds Are Crushed And Eaten By The Natives.
Munyeru, Breaden tells
me, is quite a good vegetable for human consumption.
Why the locality of
this well, "Warri Well," should be specially favoured by the growth of
parakeelia I cannot guess.
The well itself was sufficiently remarkable. Our work took us some twelve
feet from the surface, and in the well we had nearly five feet of water
and the probability of a deal more, as we had not reached "bottom." The
question that presented itself to my mind was whether the natives had
sunk the well on a likely looking spot and been fortunate in finding a
supply, or whether, from tradition, they knew that this well, possibly
only a rock-hole covered by surface soil, existed. The depression in
which the well is situated must after rain receive the drainage, not only
from the channel we followed, but from the stony rise to the north of it.
After a heavy storm - and from the way in which this creek has been torn
through the sand, scouring a channel down to bedrock, it is clear that
occasionally violent storms visit this region - a large volume of water
would collect in this depression. Some of it would be sucked up by the
trees and shrubs, some would evaporate, but the greater part would soak
into the ground where, so long as the bed-rock (which in this particular
case is a hard sandstone and iron conglomerate) is impervious, it would
remain.
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