12 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST; 



Creepers, also, are very numerous. The well-known I awyer 

 Palm, Calamus australis, grows everywhere, its graceful light green 

 fronds often forming a pleasant contrast with the darker hued 

 vegetation of the scrub ; but, although pretty to look at, it was 

 nearly impossible to force a passage through a thicket without 

 cutting one's way. The strong tendrils are all lined with sharp 

 hooks, curved backwards, which tear and cut badly if you force 

 your way through them. They are the greatest hindrance to 

 travelling through scrub, making it generally impossible to ride, as 

 the plant is very tough and difficult to cut through. There are 

 many other creepers, several of which are also plentifully covered 

 with spines, but none of them are half so numerous as the Lawyer 

 cane. I brought a few different samples with me, which will 

 show better than description what they are like. Some had 

 grown to a large size and length, and hung in festoons from the 

 trees everywhere in the scrub. The well-known Queensland 

 Bean, Entada scandens, is the seed of a creeper, and the long 

 pods are often seen hanging down. The plant grows to the top of 

 the highest trees. Cockatoos often eat the beans. The large 

 parasitical fig trees are plentiful in the scrub, and were seen in all 

 stages of growth, from the seedling sending down its thin roots 

 from the fork of another tree, in which it had formed a lodgment, 

 to the stately tree. As the seedling grows, its roots gradually 

 increase in size and number, and after a time form a complete 

 network round its doomed foster parent, which it slowly but 

 surely kills, and as the wood gets rotten, the roots of the fig tree 

 grow into it, and very soon it is completely destroyed, as will be 

 seen in the picture. Its trunk is completely formed of roots, 

 which give it a very curious appearance. Occasionally it sends 

 down rootlets from its branches, which, taking root in the ground, 

 form as it were another tree, although joined to the old one. We 

 saw also another species of fig tree, which had its fruit growing in 

 clusters from the trunk only. The beautiful Fan Palm, Lituala 

 Muelleri, likewise grows here ; in some places the trees are very 

 thick, and when rain falls or wind blows through them, the effect 

 produced on their large leaves can be heard for some distance. 

 The scrub where they grow thickly is generally clear of under- 

 growth or creepers, and the ground covered with their large dead 

 leaves. Several other species of palms are to be seen — namely, 

 the Citrus Palm, Citriobalus multiflorus, the nuts of which are 

 eaten by the natives, and the Pandanus Palm, which usually 

 grows in the low-lying forest country — but none approach the Fan 

 Palm in beauty. Occasionally the Tree Fern, Alsophila Cooperi, 

 is to be found, especially on the high land of the mountain range. 

 I saw also one fine specimen of the Alsophila australis, but this 

 kind is nowhere numerous. The number of fruit-bearing trees 

 in the scrub is very large, many of them being edible ; they vary 



