The Root Is Roasted In Hot Ashes, And Chewed, When It Affords A Nutritious And Pleasant Farinaceous Food.

The belillah is another important bulbous root, which also grows on lands subject to floods.

It is about the size of a walnut, of a hard and oily nature, and is prepared by being roasted and pounded into a thin cake between two stones. Immense tracts of country are covered with this plant on the flats of the Murray, which in the distance look like the most beautiful and luxuriant meadows. After the floods have retired I have seen several hundreds of acres, with the stems of the plant six or seven feet high, and growing so closely together as to render it very difficult to penetrate far amongst them.

The thick pulpy leaf of the mesembryanthemum is in general use in all parts of Australia which I have visited, and is eaten as a sort of relish with almost every other kind of food. That which grows upon the elevated table lands is preferred to that which is found in the valleys. It is selected when the full vigour of the plant begins to decline and the tips of the leaves become red, but before the leaf is at all withered. The fruit is used both when first ripe and also after it has become dried up and apparently withered. In each case it has an agreeable flavour and is much prized by the natives.

Many other descriptions of fruits and berries are made use of in different parts of the continent, the chief of which, so far as their use has come under my own observation, are -

1. A kind of fruit called in the Moorunde dialect "ketango," about the size and shape of a Siberian crab, but rounder. When this is ripe, it is of a deep red colour, and consists of a solid mealy substance, about the eighth of an inch in thickness, enclosing a large round stone, which, upon being broken, yields a well-flavoured kernel. The edible part of the fruit has an agreeable acid taste, and makes excellent puddings or preserves, for which purpose it is now extensively used by Europeans. The shrub on which this grows, is very elegant and graceful, and varies from four to twelve feet in height. [Note 71: A species of fusanus.] When in full bearing, nothing can exceed its beauty, drooping beneath its crimson load.

Another shrub found in the scrubs, may sometimes be mistaken for this, as it bears in appearance a similar fruit; but on being tasted, it is bitter and nauseous. This in the Murray dialect is called "netting." The natives prepare it by baking it in an oven, which takes the bitter taste away. The "netting" is earlier in season than the "ketango."

2. A berry about the size and shape of a large sloe, but with a smaller stone; conical in shape, and rounded at the large end. This fruit is juicy and saline, though not disagreeable in taste. There are several varieties of it, which when ripe are of a black, red, or yellow colour. The black is the best. The bush upon which it grows is a salsolaceous bramble [Note 72: Nitraria Australis], and is found in large quantities on the saline flats, bordering some parts of the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers; and along the low parts of the southern coast, immediately behind the ridges bounding the sea shore. It is a staple article of food in its season, among the natives of those districts where it abounds, and is eaten by them raw, stone and all.

3. A small berry or currant, called by the natives of Moorunde "eertapko," about the size of No. 2. shot. When ripe it is red, and of an agreeable acid flavour. It grows upon a low creeping tap-rooted plant, of a salsolaceous character, found in the alluvial flats of the Murray, among the polygonum brushes, and in many other places. A single plant will spread over an area of many yards in diameter, covering the dry and arid ground with a close, soft, and velvety carpet in the heat of summer, at which time the fruit is in perfection. To collect so small a berry with facility, and in abundance, the natives cut a rounded tray of thin bark, two or three feet long, and six or eight inches wide, over this they lift up the plant, upon which the fruit grows, and shake the berries into it. When a sufficiency has been collected, the berries are skilfully tossed into the air, and separated from the leaves and dirt. The natives are very fond of this fruit, which affords them an inexhaustible resource for many weeks. In an hour a native could collect more than he could use in a day.

The other sorts of fruits and berries are numerous and varied, but do not merit particular description.

[Note 73: Mr. Simpson gives the following account of the Bunya Bunya, a fruit-bearing tree lately discovered on the N.E. coast of New Holland.

"Ascending a steep hill, some four miles further on, we passed through a bunya scrub, and for the first time had an opportunity of examining this noble tree more closely. It raises its majestic head above every other tree in the forest, and must, therefore, frequently reach the height of 250 feet; the trunk is beautifully formed, being as straight as an arrow, and perfectly branchless for above two-thirds of its height; branches then strike off, nearly at right angles from the trunk, forming circles which gradually diminish in diameter till they reach the summit, which terminates in a single shoot; the foliage shining, dark green, the leaves acutely pointed and lanceolate, with large green cones, the size of a child's head, hanging from the terminal branches in the fruiting season (January). It is, too, very remarkable that the bunya tree, according to the natives, is nowhere to be met with but in these parts; it is, however, there is no doubt, a species of the araucaria genus, well known in South America; the timber, when green, is white, fine grained and very tough, but whether it retains these qualities when dry, has not yet been determined.

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