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Webster 1913 Edition
Grass tree
Grass′ tree′
.(Bot.)
(a)
An Australian plant of the genus
Xanthorrhœa
, 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
. (b)
A similar Australian plant (
Kingia australis
).