affected philanthropy of the present Governor of the Colony, in advertising runaway convicts under the soft and gentle name of <i>absentees</i>, is really unaccountable, unless we suppose it possible that his Excellency as a native of Ireland, and as having a well-grounded Hibernian antipathy to his absentee countrymen, uses the term as one expressive both of the criminality of the absentee and of his own abhorrence of the crime."

<hw>Acacia</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. a genus of shrubs or trees, <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. The Australian species often form thickets or scrubs, and are much used for hedges. The species are very numerous, and are called provincially by various names, e.g. "Wattle," "Mulga," "Giddea," and "Sally," an Anglicized form of the aboriginal name <i>Sallee</i> (q.v.). The tree peculiar to Tasmania, <i>Acacia riceana</i>, Hensl., (i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>, is there called the <i>Drooping Acacia</i>.

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 202:

"We possess above a hundred and thirty species of the acacia."

1839. Dr. J. Shotsky, quoted in `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 5, p. 5, col. 2:

"Yet, Australian sky and nature awaits and merits real artists to portray it. Its gigantic gum and acacia trees, 40 ft. in girth, some of them covered with a most smooth bark, externally as white as chalk. .. ."

1844. L. Leichhardt, Letter in `Cooksland,' by J. D. Lang, p. 91:

"Rosewood Acacia, the wood of which has a very agreeable violet scent like the Myal Acacia (<i>A. pendula</i>) in Liverpool Plains."

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 149:

"The Acacias are innumerable, all yielding a famous bark for tanning, and a clean and excellent gum."

1869. Mrs. Meredith, `A Tasmanian Memory,' p. 8:

"Acacias fringed with gold."

1877. F. v. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 24:

"The name Acacia, derived from the Greek, and indicative of a thorny plant, was already bestowed by the ancient naturalist and physician Dioscorides on a Gum-Arabic yielding North-African Acacia not dissimilar to some Australian species. This generic name is so familiarly known, that the appellation `Wattle' might well be dispensed with. Indeed the name Acacia is in full use in works on travels and in many popular writings for the numerous Australian species . . . Few of any genera of plants contain more species than Acacia, and in Australia it is the richest of all; about 300 species, as occurring in our continent, have been clearly defined."

<hw>Acrobates</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the Australian genus of <i>Pigmy Flying-Phalangers</i>, or, as they are locally called, <i>Opossum-Mice</i>. See <i>Opossum-Mouse, Flying-Mouse, Flying-Phalanger</i>, and <i>Phalanger</i>. The genus was founded by Desmarest in 1817. (Grk. <i>'akrobataes</i>, walking on tiptoe.)

<hw>AEpyprymnus</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus of the <i>Rufous Kangaroo-Rat</i>. It is the tallest and largest of the Kangaroo-Rats (q.v.). (Grk. <i>'aipus</i>, high, and <i>prumnon</i>, the hinder part.)

<hw>Ailuroedus</hw>, <i>n</i>. scientific name for the genus of Australian birds called <i>Cat-birds</i> (q.v.). From Grk. <i>'ailouros</i>, a cat, and <i>'eidos</i>, species.

<hw>Ake</hw>, <i>n</i>. originally Akeake, Maori name for either of two small trees, (1) <i>Dodonaea viscosa</i>, Linn., in New Zealand; (2) <i>Olearia traversii</i>, F. v. M., in the Chatham Islands. Ake is originally a Maori <i>adv</i>. meaning "onwards, in time." Archdeacon Williams, in his `Dictionary of New Zealand Language,' says <i>Ake</i>, <i>Ake</i>, <i>Ake</i>, means " for ever and ever." (Edition 182.)

1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand' (Church Missionary Society), p.133:

"Akeake, <i>paulo post futurum</i>"

1835. W. Yale, `Some Account of New Zealand,' p. 47:

"Aki, called the <i>Lignum vitae</i> of New Zealand."

1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 43:

"The ake and towai . . . are almost equal, in point of colour, to rosewood."

1883. J. Hector, `Handbook to New Zealand,' p. 131:

"Ake, a small tree, 6 to 12 feet high. Wood very hard, variegated, black and white; used for Maori clubs; abundant in dry woods and forests."

<hw>Alarm-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird-name no longer used in Australia. There is an African Alarm-bird.

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. vi. pl. 9:

"<i>Lobivanellus lobatus</i> (Lath.), Wattled Pewit, Alarm Bird of the Colonists."

<hw>Alectryon</hw>, <i>n</i>. a New Zealand tree and flower, <i>Alectryon excelsum</i>, De C., Maori name <i>Titoki</i> (q.v.); called also the <i>New Zealand Oak</i>, from the resemblance of its leaves to those of an oak. Named by botanists from Grk. <i>'alektruown</i>, a cock.

1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' I. 7, p. 16:

"The early season could not yet
Have ripened the alectryon's beads of jet,
Each on its scarlet strawberry set."

<hw>Alexandra Palm</hw>, <i>n</i>. a Queensland tree, <i>Ptychosperma alexandrae</i>, F. v. M. A beautifully marked wood much used for making walking sticks. It grows 70 or 80 feet high.

<hw>Alluvial</hw>, <i>n</i>. the common term in Australia and New Zealand for gold-bearing alluvial soil. The word is also used adjectivally as in England.

1889. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 403:

"The whole of the alluvial will be taken up, and the Terrible
Hollow will re-echo with the sound of pick and shovel."

<hw>Ambrite</hw> (generally called <B>ambrit</B>), <i>n</i>. Mineral [from amber + ite, mineral formative, `O.E.D.'], a fossil resin found in masses amidst lignite coals in various parts of New Zealand. Some identify it with the resin of <i>Dammara australis</i>, generally called <i>Kauri gum</i> (q.v.).

1867. F. von Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 79:

"Although originating probably from a coniferous tree related to the Kauri pine, it nevertheless has been erroneously taken for Kauri gum."—[Footnote]: "It is sufficiently characterised to deserve a special name ; but it comes so near to real <i>amber</i> that it deserves the name of <i>Ambrite</i>."

[This is the earliest use of the word.]

<hw>Anabranch</hw>, <i>n</i>. a branch of a river which leaves it and enters it again. The word is not Australian, though it is generally so reckoned. It is not given in the `Century,' nor in the `Imperial,' nor in `Webster,' nor in the `Standard.' The `O.E.D.' treats <i>Ana</i> as an independent word, rightly explaining it as <i>anastomosing</i>, but its quotation from the `Athenaeum' (1871), on which it relies,is a misprint. For the origin and coinage of