Wernerian Natural History Society. 371 



sprung forth with great speed and luxuriance in Mr Syme's pine-house. 

 Its subsequent history you know. 



" I liave long been surprised that so beautiful a shrub is not cultivated 

 by horticulturists. I have never seen it in any stove in this country, and 

 have never heard of its being grown before, though I have often inquired 

 about it. Among other qualifications for a hothouse plant, it does not 

 attain a great altitude. There have been doubts on that head in conse- 

 quence of Quassia amara, the original source of Quassia-wood, having 

 been confounded with the giant Plcrasna excelsa, a great forest tree, 

 which has long supplied the only Quassia-wood to be met with in Euro- 

 pean commerce. No one can entertain any doubt, however, who has at- 

 tended with moderate care to the subject. Nevertheless, I may mention, 

 that on asking information on this point from Dr Hartle, he was good 

 enough to cut down one of the tallest plants in Trinidad, which grew in 

 his own garden, and sent me trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit, every 

 thing in short but the root. The trunk is 9 feet long, the branches 6 feet, 

 so that the usual description, which represents it to be 12 feet, and at 

 most 15 feet high, seems exact." 



Wernerian Natural History Society. 



At a late meeting of this Society, Professor T. S. Traill, Vice- 

 President, in the Chair — Assistant-Commissary-General Robert 

 Neill gave an account of the habits of the Keelong or Chelodina 

 longicollis of New Holland ; and exhibited a living specimen, brought 

 by him from King George's Sound, and probably the only living 

 ono ever seen in Europe. It is an aquatic tortoise, inhabiting fresh- 

 water lakes and marshes. From the nose to the tail it measures 

 1 foot 4 inches, the neck and head occupying about 6 inches. When it 

 raises its head above the water, and its large oval shell is immersed, 

 it so greatly resembles a poisonous black snake which inhabits the 

 same localities, that even the natives are sometimes deceived and 

 frightened. It feeds upon the spawn of frogs, young tadpoles, and 

 chulgies, or small crayfish, which last are described as very abun- 

 dant. The natives esteem tiie Keelong very much as food ; and Mr 

 Neill mentioned that he had boiled one, and found it to resemble in 

 flavour a tender fowl. It is not seen during the winter months, 

 from June till August; and Mr Neill thinks that it remains torpid 

 during that season, burying itself in the soft mud under the roots of 

 reeds. About the beginning of February (the Australian midsum- 

 mer) the Keelong comes on shore during the night, makes a hollow 

 in the sand, and lays from twelve to eighteen eggs, about the size of 

 those of a pigeon, but more oblong. It covers up the eggs, and 

 leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the sun ; but the natives, 

 knowing the surface-marks, collect great numbers of them for food ; 

 and Mr Neill mentioned that he had tasted them when cooked at a 

 native's fire in the woods, and found them delicate and good. Dur- 



