Austral English Part 213

(q.v.).

Ranges, n. the usual word in Australia for "mountains." Compare the use of "tiers" in Tasmania.

Rangy, adj. mountainous.

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 89:

"He tramps over the most rangy and inaccessible regions of the colonies."

1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria'

(1841-1851), p. 46:

"The country being rangy, somewhat scrubby, and dest.i.tute of prominent features."

Raspberry, Wild, or Native, n. Rubus gunnia.n.u.s, Hook., N.O. Rosaceae; peculiar to Tasmania, and so called there. In Australia, the species is Rubus rosafolius, Smith. See also Lawyer and Blackberry.

Raspberry-jam Tree, n. name given to Acacia ac.u.minata, Benth., especially of Western Australia. Though Maiden does not give the name, he says (Useful Native Plants,'

p. 349), "the scent of the wood is comparable to that of raspberries."

1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,'

p. 328:

"Plains with groves or thickets of the raspberry-jam-tree."

1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii.

c. iv. p. 132:

"Raspberry-jam ... acacia sweet-scented, grown on good ground."

1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 68:

"The other trees besides the palm were known to the men by colonial appellations, such as the bloodwood and the raspberry-jam. The origin of the latter name, let me inform my readers, has no connection whatever with any produce from the tree."

1896. `The Australasian,' Feb. 15, p. 313:

"The raspberry-jam-tree is so called on account of the strong aroma of raspberries given out when a portion is broken."

[On the same page is an ill.u.s.tration of these trees growing near Perth, Western Australia.]

Rasp-pod, n. name given to a large Australian tree, Flindersia australis, R. Br., N.O.

Meliaceae.

Rat, n. True Rodents are represented in Australia and Tasmania by six genera; viz., Mus, Conilurus (= Hapalotis), Xeromys, Hydromys, Mastacomys, Uromys, of which the five latter are confined to the Australian Region.

The genus Hydromys contains the Eastern Water Rat, sometimes called the Beaver Rat (Hydromys chrysogaster, Geoffroy), and the Western Water Rat (H. fulvolavatus, Gould).

Conilurus contains the Jerboa Rats (q.v.).

Xeromys contains a single species, confined to Queensland, and called Thomas' Rat (Xeromys myoides, Thomas).

Mastacomys contains one species, the Broad-toothed Rat (M. fuscus, Thomas), found alive only in Tasmania, and fossil in New South Wales.

Uromys contains two species, the Giant Rat (U. macropus, Gray), and the Buff-footed Rat (U. cervinipes, Gould).

Mus contains twenty-seven species, widely distributed over the Continent and Tasmania.

1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 301:

"The Secretary read the following extracts from a letter of the Rev. W. Colenso to Ronald C. Gunn, Esq., of Launceston, dated Waitangi, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, 4th September, 1850:-- `I have procured two specimens of the ancient, and all but quite extinct, New Zealand Rat, which until just now (and notwithstanding all my endeavours, backed, too, by large rewards) I never saw. It is without doubt a true Mus, smaller than our English black rat (Mus Rattus), and not unlike it. This little animal once inhabited the plains and f.a.gus forests of New Zealand in countless thousands, and was both the common food and great delicacy of the natives-- and already it is all but quite cla.s.sed among the things which were."

1880. A. R. Wallace, `Island Life,' p. 445:

"The Maoris say that before Europeans came to their country a forest rat abounded, and was largely used for food . . .

Several specimens have been caught ... which have been declared by the natives to be the true Kiore Maori--as they term it; but these have usually proved on examination to be either the European black rat or some of the native Australian rats ... but within the last few years many skulls of a rat have been obtained from the old Maori cooking-places and from a cave a.s.sociated with moa bones, and Captain Hutton, who has examined them, states that they belong to a true Mus, but differ from the Mus rattus."

Rata, n. Maori name for two New Zealand erect or sub-scandent flowering trees, often embracing trunks of forest trees and strangling them: the Northern Rata, Metrosideros robusta, A. Cunn., and the Southern Rata, M. lucida, Menz., both of the N.O. Myrtaceae.

The tree called by the Maoris Aka, which is another species of Metrosederos (M. florida), is also often confused with the Rata by bushmen and settlers.

In Maori, the adj. rata means red-hot, and there may be a reference to the scarlet appearance of the flower in full bloom. The timber of the Rata is often known as Ironwood, or Ironbark. The trees rise to sixty feet in height; they generally begin by trailing downwards from the seed deposited on the bark of some other tree near its top.

When the trailing branches reach the ground they take root there and sprout erect. For full account of the habit of the trees, see quotation 1867 (Hochstetter), 1879 (Moseley), and 1889 (Kirk).

1843. E. Dieffenbach, `Travels in New Zealand,' p. 224:

"The venerable rata, often measuring forty feet in circ.u.mference and covered with scarlet flowers--while its stem is often girt with a creeper belonging to the same family (metrosideros hypericifolia?)."

1848. Rev. R. Taylor, `Leaf from the Natural History of New Zealand,' p. 21:

"Rata, a tree; at first a climber; it throws out aerial roots; clasps the tree it clings to and finally kills it, becoming a large tree (metrosideros robusta). A hard but not durable wood."

1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' canto 1, p. 14:

"Unlike the neighbouring rata cast, And tossing high its heels in air."

1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 135:

"The Rata (Metrosideros robusta), the trunk of which, frequently measuring forty feet in circ.u.mference, is always covered with all sorts of parasitical plants, and the crown of which bears bunches of scarlet blossoms."

1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 264:

"Nay, not the Rata! howsoe'er it bloomed, Paling the crimson sunset; for you know, Its twining arms and shoots together grow Around the trunk it clasps, conjoining slow Till they become consolidate, and show An ever-thickening sheath that kills at last The helpless tree round which it clings so fast."

1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 310:

"The Rata-Tree (Metrosideros robusta). This magnificent tree... . height 80 to 100 feet ... a clear stem to 30 and even 40 feet ... very beautiful crimson polyandrous flowers ... wood red, hard, heavy, close-grained, strong, and not difficult to work."

1879. H. n. Moseley, `Notes of a Naturalist on Challenger,'

p. 278:

One of the most remarkable trees ... is the Rata... .