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 - Edward Ellis Morris

(2) A bushman's contraction for any species of the wiry plants called polygonum.

1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' [writing of the Lachlan district, New South Wales] p. 180:

"The poor emus had got down into the creek amongst the lignum bushes for a little shade . . . I do not know what a botanist would call them; they are something like cane, but with large leaves, which all animals are fond of, and they grow about eight feet high in the creeks and gullies."

1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 135:

"By mulga scrub and lignum plain."

<hw>Lilac</hw>, n. name given in Australia to the tree Melia composita, Willd., N.O. Meliaceae, called Cape Lilac. It is not endemic in Australia, and is called "Persian Lilac "in India. In Tasmania the name of Native Lilac is given to Prostanthera rotundifolia, R. Br., N.O. Labiatae, and by Mrs. Meredith to Tetratheca juncea, Smith, of the Linnean Order, Octandria.

1793. J. E. Smith, `Specimen of Botany of New Holland,' p. 5:

"Tetratheca juncea, Rushy Tetratheca [with plate]."

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 69:

"A little purple flower, which is equally common, so vividly recalls to my mind, both by its scent and colour, an Old-World favorite, that I always know it as the native Lilac (Tetratheca juncea)."