Austral English. Edward Ellis Morris

Austral English

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."

<hw>Caper-tree</hw>, 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."

<hw>Captain Cook</hw>, or <hw>Cooker</hw>, 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.'"

<hw>Carbora</hw>, 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.

<hw>Cardamom</hw>, 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."

<hw>Carp</hw>, 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.

<hw>Carpet-Shark</hw>, n. i.q. Wobbegong (q.v.)

<hw>Carpet-Snake</hw>, n. a large Australian snake with a variegated skin, Python variegata, Gray. In Whitworth's `Anglo-Indian Dictionary,' 1885 (s.v.), we are told that the name is loosely applied (sc. in India) to any kind of snake found in a dwelling-house other than a cobra or a dhaman. In Tasmania, a venomous snake, Hoplocephalus curtus, Schlegel. See under Snake.

<hw>Carrier</hw>, n. a local name for a water-bag.

1893. A. F. Calvert, `English Illustrated,' Feb., p. 321:

"For the water-holders or `carriers' (made to fit the bodies of the horses carrying them, or to `ride easily' on pack-saddles)."

<hw>Carrot, Native</hw>, (1) Daucus brachiatus, Sieb., N.O. Umbelliferae. Not endemic in Australia.

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 64:

"The native carrot … was here withered and in seed."

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 124:

"Native carrot. Stock are very fond of this plant when young. Sheep thrive wonderfully on it where it is plentiful. It is a small annual herbaceous plant, growing plentifully on sandhills and rich soil; the seeds, locally termed `carrot burrs,' are very injurious to wool, the hooked spines with which the seeds are armed attaching themselves to the fleece, rendering portions of it quite stiff and rigid. The common carrot belongs, of course, to this genus, and the fact that it is descended from an apparently worthless, weedy plant, indicates that the present species is capable of much improvement by cultivation."

(2) In Tasmania Geranium dissectum, Linn., is also called "native carrot."

<hw>Cascarilla, Native</hw>, n. an Australian timber, Croton verreauxii, Baill., N.O. Euphorbiaceae.

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 408:

"Native cascarilla. A small tree; wood of a yellowish colour, close-grained and firm."

<hw>Cassowary</hw>, n. The word is Malay, the genus being found in "the Islands in the Indian Archipelago." (`O.E.D.') The Australian variety is Casuarius australis, Waller. The name is often erroneously applied (as in the first two quotations), to the Emu (q.v.), which is not a Cassowary.

1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage,' c. xxii. p. 271:

"New Holland Cassowary. [Description given.] This bird is not uncommon to New Holland, as several of them have been seen about Botany Bay, and other parts. … Although this bird cannot fly, it runs so swiftly that a greyhound can scarcely overtake it. The flesh is said to be in taste not unlike beef."

1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xi. p. 438:

"The cassowary of New South Wales is larger in all respects than the well-known bird called the cassowary."

1869. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia' (Supplement):

"Casuarius Australis, Wall., Australian Cassowary, sometimes called Black Emu."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 73:

"One day an egg of a cassowary was brought to me; this bird, although it is nearly akin to the ostrich and emu, does not, like the latter, frequent the open plains, but the thick brushwood. The Australian cassowary is found in Northern Queensland from Herbert river northwards, in all the large vine-scrubs on the banks of the rivers, and on the high mountains of the coasts."

Ibid. p. 97.

"The proud cassowary, the stateliest bird of Australia … this beautiful and comparatively rare creature.'"

1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':

"The Australian cassowary. … They are somewhat shorter and stouter in build than the emu."

<hw>Casuarina</hw>, n. the scientific name of a large group of trees common to India, and other parts lying between India and Australasia, but more numerous in Australia than elsewhere, and often forming a characteristic feature of the vegetation. They are the so-called She-oaks (q.v.). The word is not, however, Australian, and is much

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