Lexic.us

Definition of Grass tree

1. Noun. Elegant tree having either a single trunk or a branching trunk each with terminal clusters of long narrow leaves and large panicles of fragrant white, yellow or red flowers; New Zealand.

2. Noun. Any of several Australian evergreen perennials having short thick woody stems crowned by a tuft of grasslike foliage and yielding acaroid resins.

3. Noun. Gaunt Tasmanian evergreen shrubby tree with slender tapering leaves 3 to 5 feet long.

Medical Definition of Grass tree

1. An Australian plant of the genus Xanthorrhoea, having a thick trunk crowned with a dense tuft of pendulous, grasslike leaves, from the center of which arises a long stem, bearing at its summit a dense flower spike looking somewhat like a large cat-tail. These plants are often called "blackboys" from the large trunks denuded and blackened by fire. They yield two kinds of fragrant resin, called Botany-bay gum, and Gum Acaroides. A similar Australian plant (Kingia australis). Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Literary usage of Grass tree

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages with by Edward Ellis Morris (1898)
"1839. TL Mitchell, 'Three Expeditions,' vol. ii. p. 308: " We approached a range of barren hills of clay slate, on which grew the grass-tree ..."

2. A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies by James Backhouse (1843)
"Grass-tree Plains.—Prime Seal Island. —Spears.—Climbing Trees.—Comparative Skill —Mustering.—Cleanliness.— Catechist.—Light-house.—Bush-rangers. ..."

3. The Aborigines of Victoria: With Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives by Robert Brough Smyth (1878)
"They then proceeded to fix the grass-tree sticks in the holes, adjusting them carefully, so as to converge to a common centre at the top. ..."

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