THE BOTANY OF THE COLONY.
Baron Hugel, Dr. Lindley, and Sir William Hooker, have published
lists of Western Australian shrubs and plants, but the most complete
and elaborate work on the botany of Western Australia is the series
of nineteen letters published in the "Inquirer," by Mr. Drummond, of
Hawthornden, in the colony, and from them we shall compile the
present chapter; but, interesting as they are in their fullest and
most minute details to botanists, it is possible that they may be TOO
descriptive and extend too much into detail for general readers, and
we shall therefore abstain from giving a catalogue of the various
indigenous plants, and confine our remarks to the more useful ones.*
The first to which Mr. Drummond alludes is the blackboy, of which
there are several varieties. The glaucus-leaved York blackboy is,
however, the most important, and grows thirty feet in height without
a branch. It is considered by the settlers the best material for
thatch, and the young and tender leaves are found to be an agreeable
vegetable, and also fodder for horses, goats, sheep, and cattle. The
natives are particularly fond of the blackboy, whilst its sound old
flower-stalks furnish them with the means of obtaining a light by
friction. The native yam, of the class Dioeceae, is stated by Mr.
Drummond to be the finest esculent vegetable the colony produces.
The fungi, or mushrooms, are also palatable to the Aborigines; one
species belonging to this order, and named the Boletus, is
remarkable for possessing the properties of German tinder, when well
dried, and for emitting a radiant light in its natural state.
[footnote] *This brief compilation is the work of Alexander Andrews,
Esq.
There are seventy species of grasses. The genus stripa has several
varieties, of which the seeds are injurious to sheep, penetrating
into the wool, and sometimes into the carcase and causing death. By
adopting the precaution of shearing before the seeds are ripe, this
mischief is however obviated. Another description is distinguished
as elegantissima, from its beautiful appearance, and is used as a
decoration, and for ornamenting rooms.
The bulrush of Scripture is found here, and is used by coopers to
stanch their work. A large jointed rush has also been found of great
service, and introduced in the walls of houses to advantage, and some
varieties of the Restiaceae are useful in thatch work; and in his
sixth letter, Mr. Drummond mentions the buttack as very useful in
tyings. A climbing species of the Thysanotus, near the Moore
river, is much used by the natives as food. The Madge and the
Guardine are roots from which the natives extract nutritious food;
the pigs are also fond of them, and besides these there are other
white roots used as food by the natives.
The oak-leaved Chenopodium is supposed to contain essential oil; it
was formerly used by the settlers as a vegetable, and is proved to
contain carbonate of soda, so that, as Mr. Drummond suggests, "it
would be worth inquiry at what price we could afford barilla as an
export." The Erythraea Australis is, we are informed, a good
substitute, and is used as such, for hops; and one species of tobacco
is indigenous to the colony. The sow-thistle of Swan River was, in
the early days of the settlement, used as a vegetable, but is now
eaten only by the domestic animals, by whom it is much relished. As
a salad, it is said to be scarcely inferior to endive. The
Helicrysum, a biennial of the Vasse district, is a grateful fodder
for horses, and the Morna nitida for goats, sheep, and cattle, as
are also several species of Picris and other shrubs. There is also
a native celery, which forms a poor substitute for that of Europe;
two varieties of this species are mentioned -- the Conna, of which
the roots are eaten by the natives after being peeled, and the
Kukire, the foot of which resembles the carrot in appearance, with
the smell and colour of the parsnip. The wild carrot is also an
excellent vegetable, and from its root rich wine has been extracted.
The order Eryngo has a species of which the roots when candied have
great restorative powers. Of the Hederoma latifolia, Dr. Lindley
remarks, that its half-ripe fruits, if sent to Europe, would give
several original and valuable scents to the perfumer.
Of the sea-weeds, one particular species, supposed to be the Fucus
amylaeceus, thrown in great quantities upon the coast, is mentioned
as forming when boiled, sweetened, and spiced, a nutritious and
beautiful jelly of a fine rose colour; and as it appears that it may
be dried without injury and preserved for years, it would be of value
as an export.
The catalogue of indigenous fruits is not very extensive, but one
species, belonging to the order Epacrideae, is reported to bear
very palatable berries. The Vasse apple, of the size of a peach, is
stated when boiled with sugar to be an agreeable sweet-meat.
Another fruit, of the species Mesembryanthemum, is of a less
pleasing flavour; but one of the same species, resembling the English
gooseberry, is said to be delicious. Mr. Drummond also records the
discovery, southward of the Vasse, of a nondescript shrub of about
five feet in height, and bearing fruit as large as a middle-sized
plum, of a fine purple colour, covered with a rich bloom, and having
a stone similar to the plum. It is reported to have a pleasing
taste. This completes the list of fruits, which Mr. Drummond
acknowledges to be imperfect, as the cultivation of the vine, olive,
currant, and other imported fruits has withdrawn the attention of the
settlers from the native productions; and we shall now pass to the
smaller classes of the Eucalyptus tribe. The Doatta is a species
of this class, and the bark of its root is much relished by the
natives, having a sweet and pleasing taste, as is also the trunk of
the red-gum; and its leaves, washed in water, form an agreeable
beverage. They also collect a description of manna from the leaves
of the York gum, which yields a considerable quantity of saccharine
matter. The common green wattle of the genus of Acacia is found
plentifully on the alluvial flats of the Swan, and the bark is much
used for tanning; and the gum-wattle of the same order produces so
great a quantity of gum as to demand the attention of exporters.
Another shrub of this order is found in the Vasse district, and
produces galls similar to those of the oak, which might also be
collected for exportation. The gum of some of these species is used
by the natives as food, and the seeds, when ground, give them a
tolerable substitute for flour.
Instead of entering more at large into dry botanical details, I will
transfer to these pages a letter from my respected friend, Mr. James
Drummond, the botanist already alluded to, which perhaps will prove
more acceptable to the general reader.
This letter was published at the time in the local journals.
"Dear Sir, -- I send you a few extracts from a journal of observations
which I made in a journey to the north, in company with Mr. Gilbert,
the ornithologist.* My sons had heard from the natives that a
considerable river and lakes of fresh water were to be found about
two days' journey to the north of their station on the Moore River;
and in company with Captain Scully, the Government Resident of this
district, they determined to explore the country in that direction.
Mr. Phillips and some other gentlemen who were to be of the party, as
well as Mr. Gilbert and myself, arrived at the station too late; I
shall therefore principally confine my observations to Mr. Gilbert's
transactions and my own.
[footnote] * Mr. Gilbert, an enthusiastic naturalist, and an amiable
and highly respectable man, was treacherously murdered by natives to
the North-East of New Holland, whilst engaged upon a scientific
expedition.
"We left Hawthornden on the 22d August, and slept at the residence of
Captain Scully, who had set out some days before to join the
exploring party. On the 23d we proceeded on our journey to the
north, and in about five or six miles we examined some remarkable
masses of granite rocks a little to the right of the road which is
formed by our carts and horses passing to and from the Moore River.
Mr. Gilbert found a small but curious fresh-water shell in some pools
of rain-water on the rocks, and I found two plants which I had not
seen before. In about eleven or twelve miles from Captain Scully's
we reached a permanent spring called Yoolgan, where there is
excellent grass, and where we stopped to dine and feed our horses.
Soon after leaving Yoolgan, we met with Mr. Phillips and Mr. John
Mackie returning; they had arrived at our station a day too late for
the party; we therefore knew that our hurrying on to join them was
useless. In ten or twelve miles from Yoolgan we reached Yeinart, a
tea-tree swamp, where there is grass and water to be had throughout
the year. The night threatened to rain, but we arrived too late to
do much in the house-making way; fortunately, the rain kept off until
daylight, when we soon covered our house with tea-tree bark, and
determined to stop for the day, which I consider the best way, as no
collections can be made when it is raining, and provisions and
everything get spoiled. It cleared up about ten o'clock, and we went
to visit a brushwood swamp, where my son Johnston had shot several
specimens of a beautiful species of kangaroo with a dark-coloured
fur, overtopped with silvery hairs, called Marnine by the natives:
we saw plenty of tracks of the animals, but could not see a single
specimen. On the top of a hill to the north of the swamp I succeeded
in finding two very distinct species of Dryandra, new to me. I
also found a fine species of Eucalyptus in flower, which is
distinguished from the Matilgarring of the natives, the
Eucalyptus macrocarpus of Sir W. T. Hooker, by having lengthened
recurved flower-stalks; the flowers are rose-coloured.
"On the 25th we proceeded on our journey. I observed two new species
of acacia near Yeinart. We mistook our road, and made our old
station at Badgee-badgee, where we stopped to dine and feed our
horses. I also found some curious aquatic plants in the pools of
water among the rocks at Badgee-badgee. After dinner we succeeded
with difficulty in tracing our road to our present station on the
Mouran pool, the cart tracks being nearly obliterated by the
trampling of the sheep. On arriving, we found that the exploring
party had returned, and that Captain Scully and my son James had
left, on their return, about half an hour before our arrival. The
mutilated specimens of plants brought home by the party, and the
accounts of some which were left behind, determined me to visit the
new river myself, after botanizing a day in the vicinity of the
station, where I found a fine glaucus-leaved Anadenia, and Mr.
Gilbert got specimens of the blue kangaroo, and several small new
quadrupeds -- one of them apparently a true rat, almost as large and
mischievous as the Norway rat. Having got two natives, one of whom
(Cabbinger) had been with the party to the north, we started on the
27th, and slept at a spring called Boorbarna. On the way I found a
species of the common poison which I had not seen before, and a
beautiful Conospermum, with pannicles of blue flowers varying to
white. I was informed, by my son Johnston, that a plant like
horehound, but with scarlet flowers, in tubes about an inch long,
grew on the top of a stony hill to the north of the spring; I went
and found the plant, which belongs to Scrophularinae; I also found
a Manglesia, allied to Tridentifera, but having the leaves more
divided; I also found a beautiful blue climbing plant, a species of
Pronaya, on the top of the same hill. On the 28th, soon after
setting out on our journey, I found two splendid species of
everlasting flower, of which my son Johnston had been the original
discoverer; one, with golden-yellow flowers varying to white, has the
flowers in heads different from anything of the sort I have seen
before, and will, I think, form a new genus of Compositae; and the
other with pink flowers, growing two feet high, something like
Lawrencella rosea, or Rhodanthe Manglesii, but if possible finer
than either. In nine or ten miles to the north of Boorbarna, we
crossed a curious tract of country, covered with what I considered a
variety of quartz, which breaks with a conchoidal fracture, but it
has very much the appearance of flint; in many places the pieces were
large, with sharp angles; my sons complained that it injured their
horses' feet, but by alighting, and leading our horses over the worse
parts, I did not perceive any bad effects from it. This tract of
country produces some interesting plants; a splendid Calathamnus,
with leaves nine inches long, and showy scarlet flowers, was found by
my youngest son, and I got plenty of specimens.
"With regard to a new Banksia, allied to Aquifolia, which he
found here, I was not so fortunate, and he brought home no specimens.
After crossing several miles of this quartz formation, we came upon
an extensive flat of strong clay, covered with Eucalyptus, and some
curious species of acacia; we crossed a considerable river, or brook,
running strong to the west, and about two miles, after crossing this
brook, we made the river we were in quest of at a place called
Murarino by the natives. Near the river I found a splendid plant,
which had been first observed by my son Johnston; he took it for a
Lasiopetalum, but I expect it will prove to be a species of
Solanum; it grows two or three feet high, with large purple
flowers, with calyxes like brown velvet; the leaves are irregularly
shaped, acuminate, about two inches long, and an inch and a half wide
at their broadest parts; the stems are prickly, and all the leaves
covered with a down as in Lasiopetalum. I am uncertain about the
genus, not having seen the seed-vessels, but whatever that may be, it
is of our finest Australian plants.
"We stopped to dine on the river, and in about four miles farther to
the north, we reached two fresh-water lakes called Dalarn and
Maradine. Ducks of various sorts were here in thousands, and the
water-hens, or gallinules, which visited the settlements on the Swan
some years ago, were plentiful. Mr. Gilbert shot three or four at a
shot. I found a fine Baechia, which had been first found by my son
James, and a curious new plant belonging to Compositae, but not yet
in flower. The appearance of the country about these lakes, of which
there are several besides those I have named, and the plants which
grow about them, which are generally met with at no great distance
from the sea, seem to prove that the lakes are at no great distance
from it, and that the Darling Range does not extend so far to the
north. No hills of any description appeared to the west; from the
top of a hill to the east, two remarkable hills appeared, apparently
about thirty miles to the north; one of them was observed by my son
to have a remarkable peaked top, and they supposed they might be
Mount Heathcote and Wizard Peak. We saw, as we came along, a high
hill, which the natives called Wangan Catta; they said it was three
days' walk to it; it lay due east of our course.
"On the 29th, we returned on our track for about seven miles, until
we reached the first running river we met on our journey to the
north. Our guides agreed to take us back by a different route, and
to take us to a hill where a curious species of kangaroo called
Damar by them, would be met with. My son Johnston has shot several
of these animals about a day's walk to the east of our station on the
Moore River. We therefore ascended this river in a course S.E. by E.,
and soon after we were upon its banks, we came upon a grassy country;
three or four miles up we stopped to dine and feed the horses, at a
place called Nugadrine; several pairs of beautiful falcons, the
Falco Nypolencus of Gould, were flying over us, and Mr. Gilbert
succeeded in shooting one of them. After dinner, we proceeded in the
same direction for nine or ten miles; we soon crossed the tracks of
Captain Scully and my sons on their return; they had gone up the main
or northern branch of the river, and had found but little grass while
they followed its banks; but they had passed over a great deal of
grassy land in crossing the country from it to the Moore River.
"We travelled for ten or eleven miles through a splendid grassy
country, and met with a large tribe of natives, several of whom had
never seen white men before; they were very friendly, and offered us
some of their favourite root, the wyrang, which grows abundantly
among these grassy hills. They made so much noise, that we wished to
get some distance from them to sleep, but they all followed us and
encamped near, many of the single men sleeping by our fire. In the
morning of the 30th I went to the top of a hill, near our bivouac,
while Mr. Gilbert was superintending the preparations for breakfast,
and clipping the beards of some of our new friends. After breakfast,
we started direct for our station on the Moore River; the natives who
were with us as guides considering our stock of flour insufficient to
proceed any farther in the direction of the hill where they expected
to find the Damars. For almost the whole of this day we travelled
over the most splendid grassy country I have ever seen in Australia;
the hill-sides, as far as we could see in every direction, were
covered with beautiful grass, and of a golden colour, from the
flowers of the beautiful yellow everlasting flower which I have
described in a former part of this letter, which is only to be found
in the richest soil. After reaching our station, I was a day or two
employed in drying my specimens of plants. My son Johnston pointed
out a most beautiful new Dryandra, which he had discovered on the
top of a hill near the Mouran-pool; I have named the species
Dryandra floribunda, from its numerous blossoms, which almost hide
the leaves; it grows twelve or fifteen feet high, and in such
abundance, that the side of the hill on which it grows actually
appears of a golden colour for several miles. I consider it the most
beautiful species of the genus yet known for cultivation.
"I am, Sir,
"Your obedient servant,
"James Drummond.
"P.S. -- Our course generally by compass from Hawthornden to these
lakes has been several points to the west of north. The natives
informed us, when at the lakes, that they could reach the sea-coast
long before sunset.
"Hawthornden Farm, Toodyay Valley."