Fungi are abundant, and of great variety.  Some are obtained from the surface of the ground, others below it, and others again from the trunks and boughs of trees.

Roots of all kinds are procured by digging, one of the most important being that of the flag or cooper’s reed, which grows in marshes or alluvial soils that are subject to periodical inundations.  This is used more or less at all seasons of the year, but is best after the floods have retired and the tops have become decayed and been burnt off.  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.”