<hw>Leopard-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. an Australian tree, <i>Flindersia maculosa</i> (or <i>Strezleckiana</i>), F. v. M., <i>N.O. Meliaceae</i>; called also <i>Spotted-Tree </i>(q.v.), and sometimes, in Queensland, <i>Prickly Pine</i>.
<hw>Lerp</hw>, <i>n</i>. an aboriginal word belonging to the Mallee District of Victoria (see <i>Mallee</i>). Sometimes spelt <i>leurp</i>, or <i>laap</i>. The aboriginal word means `sweet.' It is a kind of manna secreted by an insect, Psylla eucalypti, and found on the leaves of the Mallee, <i>Eucalyptus dumosa</i>. Attention was first drawn to it by Mr. Thomas Dobson (see quotations). A chemical substance called <i>Lerpamyllum</i> is derived from it; see Watts' `Dictionary of Chemistry,' Second Supplement, 1875, s.v.
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 73:
"The natives of the Wimmera prepare a luscious drink from the laap, a sweet exudation from the leaf of the mallee (<i>Eucalyptus dumosa</i>)."
1850. T. Dobson, `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 235:
"The white saccharine substance called `lerp,' by the Aborigines in the north-western parts of Australia Felix, and which has attracted the attention of chemists, under the impression that it is a new species of manna, originates with an insect of the tribe of <i>Psyllidae</i>, and order <i>Hemiptera</i>."
1850. Ibid. p. 292::
"Insects which, in the larva state, have the faculty of elaborating from the juices of the gum-leaves on which they live a glutinous and saccharine fluid, whereof they construct for themselves little conical domiciles."
1878. R. Brough Smyth, `The Aborigines of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 211:
"Another variety of manna is the secretion of the pupa of an insect of the <i>Psylla</i> family and obtains the name of <i>lerp</i> among the aborigines. At certain seasons of the year it is very abundant on the leaves of <i>E. dumosa</i>, or mallee scrub . . ."