The morning was spent in camp; watching the cricket and reading yesterday’s newspaper. But after lunch we rattled our dags and went out into the sunshine, driving round the city looking for a park near the Botanic Gardens. It seemed that every citizen was there in the park, enjoying the end of the rain and summer picnics, having arrived in large groups with the appropriate chairs and tables. Fortunately one such lot were leaving as we arrived and we grabbed their park.
The Adelaide Botanic Gardens are not hugely impressive when you measure them alongside those in Brisbane or Sydney, or even those we have seen in lesser places, such as Rockhampton and Cairns, but they do have an amazing treasure house hidden among the pine trees and water lilies. This is the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, housed in a lovely high ceilinged Victorian building, only recently reopened after having undergone a year’s long restoration. It was established in 1881 and is entirely dedicated to the collection and interpretation of “useful” plants. Highlights include 19th century paper mache models of fruit and fungi, aboriginal plant products, tapa cloths, timbers and fibres. There are about 210 different fungi models and 359 fruit models, mainly apples and pears, all made in the 1870s and 80s by German model makers, Arnoldi & Co. of Thuringa. We were amazed how realistic they were, especially given their age, and by the number of different species, bearing in mind that there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of new species that have been developed since then.
Many of these objects were thought to have been lost and many more had been relegated to storage, all out of sight for one reason or another for the last sixty years. Once there were four such museums in Australia; now only Adelaide survives.
Plant products, mainly the seeds are displayed in cases with excellent notes and we found it all absolutely fascinating. Some of the little pearls I picked up were the following:
The Pittosporum family includes the Australian native frangipani.
The Verbena family includes
- the Chaste Tree, the berries and leaves to be anti-aphrodisiac, used by monks to help them remain celibate
- the Simple Chaste Tree, leaves used to treat female ailments in the Cook Island and burned to deter mosquitos in Samoa.
The Nightshade family includes
- Chilli or cayenne pepper
- Tree tomatoes (aka Tamarillos)
- Capsicum or sweet peppers
- Tomatoes
- Black nightshade
- Potatoes
The Indian Persimmon is used in Indian medicine for dysentery and menstrual problems, and the sticky fruit is used in Asia for caulking boats.
The Lemon is rich in Vitamin C, once used to prevent scurvy on ships and as a contraceptive by 18th century prostitutes.
Aside from these interesting exhibits which obviously captivated me, there is also an exhibition of floral prints of drawings done between 1798 and 1803, compiled for unsuccessful publication in the very early 19th century. The volunteer attendant, a charming little lady of about ninety five toddled over to me several times when she found me so interested in this museum that we had just happened upon.
It was almost 4 pm and so we left before she had to evict us, and returned to the cruiser without really doing the rest of the park justice. Perhaps we will return another time and discover other treasures here?
The day we had explored the centre of Adelaide and Victoria Square, we saw a notice about Carols in the Town Hall on Sunday, 11th December. We had checked at the Information Centre just yesterday, but they knew nothing about it, however checking on-line, we found it to be a Carol Service organised by the Holy Trinity Anglican Church. There were to be two services; one at 5pm and the other at 7.30pm. At 4.30 pm today, we found ourselves at the Town Hall, the venue already filling quickly with families and older people, the youth obviously holding off for the later gig. It was a Christian religious service in that we were subjected to a sermon and an invitation to offer our souls, however the music was wonderful and that, after all, was why we had gone.
The interior of the Hall is very beautiful and was constructed for concerts even such as this. The choir of a dozen, smart in evening dress, the string orchestra, the band and the organist on the massive in-house organ, entertained wonderfully, and the audience joined in the singing with great gusto. Any passers-by would have certainly been reminded what all the Christmas fuss was about, aside from the fat sweaty little man in the red winter suit. The entertainment to accompany the music included a bad ventriloquist with a white dog puppet, a remote controlled Jaws that floated about above our heads and a similarly inflated clown-fish, like Nemo, who was not so controlled and ended stuck high up in a ceiling panel, an excerpt of a nativity film showing Keisha Castle-Hughes giving birth, clips of Salvador Dali’s artworks and the Beatles outside their Apple Road studios. You get the drift?
We escaped through the crowds, avoiding the very pleasant ushers who were intent on pressing tracts upon those who were not part of their normal congregation, found our way to the cruiser several blocks away and drove home for a rather late dinner, having had an excellent, albeit rather strange day; cricket, botany and Christianity.
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