Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward Ellis Morris

"<i>Stringy-bark</i>, a curious combination of fusil oil and turpentine, labelled `whisky.'"

<hw>Stringy-bark</hw>, <i>adj</i>. equivalent to "bush."

1833. Oct. `New South Wales Magazine,' vol. 1. p. 173:

". . . the workmanship of which I beg you will not scrutinize, as I am but, to use a colonial expression, `a stringy-bark carpenter.'"

1853. C. Rudston Read, `What I Heard, Saw, and Did at the Australian Gold Fields,' p. 53:

". . . after swimming a small river about 100 yards wide he'd arrive at old Geordy's, a stringy bark settler . . ."

<hw>Sturt's Desert Pea</hw>, <i>n</i>. a beautiful creeper, <i>Clianthus dampieri</i>, Cunn., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, which will only grow in very dry, sandy soil. It is sometimes called <i>Lobster's Claw</i>, from its clusters of brilliant scarlet flowers with black-purple centres, like a lobster's claw. Called also <i>Glory Pea</i> (q.v.). See <i>Clianthus</i>.

1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia,' vol. i. p. 29:

"Amongst which appears the beautiful Clianthus, known to the colonists as Sturt's desert pea."

[Footnote]: "Woodward in `Dampier's Voyages,' vol. iii. cap. 4, pl. 2. The plant is there called <i>Colutea Novae-Hollandiae</i>. Its name now is <i>Clianthus Dampieri</i>. R. Brown proposed the name of <i>Eremocharis</i>, from the Greek <i>'eraemos</i>, desert."