Austral English Part 45

1886. C. H. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 207:

"At punching oxen you may guess There's nothing out can camp him.

He has, in fact, the slouch and dress, Which bullock-driver stamp him."

Camphor-wood, n. an Australian timber; the wood of Callitris (Frenea) robusta, Cunn., N.O. Coniferae. Called also Light, Black, White, Dark, and Common Pine, as the wood varies much in its colouring. See Pine.

Canajong, n. Tasmanian aboriginal name for the plants called Pig-faces (q.v.).

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 44:

"Pig-faces. It was the canajong of the Tasmanian aboriginal. The fleshy fruit is eaten raw by the aborigines: the leaves are eaten baked."

Canary, n. (1) A bird-name used in New Zealand for Clitonyx ochrocephala, called also the Yellow-head. Dwellers in the back-blocks of Australia apply the name to the Orange-fronted Ephthianura (E. aurifrons, Gould), and sometimes to the White-throated Gerygone (Gerygone albigularis).

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 56:

"Clitonyx Ochrocephala. Yellow-head. `Canary' of the colonists."

(2) Slang for a convict. See quotations. As early as 1673, `canary-bird' was thieves' English for a gaol-bird.

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii.

p. 117:

"Convicts of but recent migration are facetiously known by the name of canaries, by reason of the yellow plumage in which they are fledged at the period of landing."

1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. ii. p. 72:

"The prisoners were dressed in yellow-hence called `canary birds.'"

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. vi. p. 49:

"Can't you get your canaries off the track here for about a quarter of an hour, and let my mob of cattle pass ?"

Candle-nut, n. The name is given in Queensland to the fruit of Aleurites moluccana, Willd., N.O. Euphorbiaceae. The nuts are two or more inches diameter. The name is often given to the tree itself, which grows wild in Queensland and is cultivated in gardens there under the name of A. triloba, Forst. It is not endemic in Australia, but the vernacular name of Candle-nut is confined to Australia and the Polynesian Islands.

1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 472:

"Candle-nut. The kernels when dried and stuck on a reed are used by the Polynesian Islanders as a substitute for candles, and as an article of food in New Georgia. These nuts resemble walnuts somewhat in size and taste. When pressed they yield a large proportion of pure palatable oil, used as a drying-oil for paint, and known as country walnut-oil and artists' oil."

Cane-grass, n. i.q. Bamboo-grass (q.v.).

Cape-Barren Goose, n. See Goose.

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 114, [Footnote]:

"The `Cape Barren Goose' frequents the island from which it takes its name, and others in the Straits. It is about the same size as a common goose, the plumage a handsome mottled brown and gray, somewhat owl-like in character."

[Cape Barren Island is in Bass Strait, between Flinders Island and Tasmania. Banks Strait flows between Cape Barren Island and Tasmania. The easternmost point on the island is called Cape Barren.]

Cape-Barren Tea, n. a shrub or tree, Correa alba, Andr., N.O. Rutaceae.

1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134:

"Leptospermum lanigerum, hoary tea-tree; Acacia decurrens, black wattle; Correa alba, Cape Barren tea. The leaves of these have been used as substitutes for tea in the colony."

Cape Lilac, n. See Lilac.

Cape Weed, n. In Europe, Roccella tinctoria, a lichen from the Cape de Verde Islands, from which a dye is produced. In New Zealand, name given to the European cats-ear, Hypaechoris radicata. In Australia it is as in quotation below. See `Globe Encyclopaedia,' 1877 (s.v.).

1878. W. R. Guilfoyle, `First Book of Australian Botany,'

p. 60:

"Cape Weed. Cryptostemma Calendulaceum. (Natural Order, Compositae.) This weed, which has proved such a pest in many parts of Victoria, was introduced from the Cape of Good Hope, as a fodder plant. It is an annual, flowering in the spring, and giving a bright golden hue to the fields.

It proves destructive to other herbs and grasses, and though it affords a nutritious food for stock in the spring, it dies off in the middle of summer, after ripening its seeds, leaving the fields quite bare."

Caper-tree, n. The Australian tree of this name is Capparis nobilis, F. v. M., N.O. Capparideae.

The Karum of the Queensland aboriginals. The fruit is one to two inches in diameter. Called also Grey Plum or Native Pomegranate. The name is also given to Capparis Mitchelli, Lindl. The European caper is Capparis spinosa, Linn.

1894. `Melbourne Museum Catalogue, Economic Woods,' p. 10:

"Native Caper Tree or Wild Pomegranate. Natural Order, Capparideae. Found in the Mallee Scrub. A small tree.

The wood is whitish, hard, close-grained, and suitable for engraving, carving, and similar purposes. Strongly resembles lancewood."

Captain Cook, or Cooker, n. New Zealand colonists' slang. First applied to the wild pigs of New Zealand, supposed to be descended from those first introduced by Captain Cook; afterwards used as term of reproach for any pig which, like the wild variety, obstinately refused to fatten. See Introduction.

1879. W. Quin, `New Zealand Country Journal,' vol. iii. p. 55:

"Many a rare old tusker finds a home in the mountain gorges.

The immense tusks at Brooksdale attest the size of the wild boars or Captain Cooks, as the patriarchs are generally named."

1894. E. Wakefield, `New Zealand after Fifty Years,' p. 85:

"The leanness and roughness of the wild pig gives it quite a different appearance from the domesticated variety; and hence a gaunt, ill-shaped, or sorry-looking pig is everywhere called in derision a `Captain Cook.'"

Carbora, n. aboriginal name for (1) the Native Bear. See Bear.

(2) A kind of water worm that eats into timber between high and low water on a tidal river.

Cardamom, n. For the Australian tree of this name, see quotation.

1890. C. Lumholtz,' Among Cannibals,' p. 96:

"The Australian cardamom tree." [Footnote]: "This is a fictitious name, as are the names of many Australian plants and animals. The tree belongs to the nutmeg family, and its real name is Myristica insipida. The name owes its existence to the similarity of the fruit to the real cardamom.

But the fruit of the Myristica has not so strong and pleasant an odour as the real cardamom, and hence the tree is called insipida."

Carp, n. The English fish is of the family Cyprinidae. The name is given to different fishes in Ireland and elsewhere. In Sydney it is Chilodactylus fuscus, Castln., and Chilodactylus macropterus, Richards.; called also Morwong (q.v.). The Murray Carp is Murrayia cyprinoides, Castln., a percoid fish. Chilodactylis belongs to the family Cirrhitidae, in no way allied to Cyprinidae, which contains the European carps. Cirrhitidae, says Guenther, may be readily recognized by their thickened undivided lower pectoral rays, which in some are evidently auxiliary organs of locomotion, in others, probably, organs of touch.

Carpet-Shark, n. i.q. Wobbegong (q.v.)