142 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



collected and properly prepared should equal the india-rubber of 

 commerce. 



The Match-box or Queensland Bean vine is found growing in 

 moist places along the streams, preferably over the Melaleuca or 

 Paper-bark tree. The pod is often 2 to 3 feet long and 4 inches 

 broad, and contains six or eight large hard-shelled seeds. These 

 are utilized by jewellers to form into match-boxes, hence the 

 popular name. 



The natives, in times of scarcity, utilize the fruits of the 

 Pandanus or Screw Pine to prepare a coarse flour, out of which 

 they make a damper of a most indigestible character. The fruit 

 grows in huge bunches of hard nuts, resembling an enormous pine- 

 apple. Zamia nuts are another article of food used by the natives. 

 These are the product of the cycads or " fern-palms," and occur 

 on the stem, just at the bases of the leaves. They are a very 

 favourite article of food with the natives, and large heaps of the 

 shells of the nuts are often found near their camping spots. 



Beautiful water-lilies grow in the pools, while the Burdekin 

 Plum, Pleiogynium solandri, Engl., is usually found in the 

 vicinity. It bears dark-looking acrid fruit, of which the blacks 

 are very fond. These pools are usually the home of numerous 

 fish, which the natives have a very simple way of obtaining, if a 

 poison tree is growing near by. They cut a few of the branches, 

 and, having bruised the leaves, throw them into the water. The 

 poison quickly acts on the fish, which rise stupefied to the surface, 

 when they rake out the fish, and cook and eat them, with seem- 

 ingly no bad effects. 



There is a species of harmless fresh-water crocodile, Philas 

 johnsoni, found in some of the streams. They do not grow as 

 large as the crocodile previously mentioned, but to a new-comer 

 they look more formidable on account of their longer jaw and 

 sharper teeth. Their food is principally fish. On one occasion 

 we came across several of these creatures in a stream. It was a 

 hot, humid day, and my companions had dived in for a swim ; 

 not to be outdone, I reluctantly followed ; a great sense of 

 insecurity, however, overcame me in the water, and I was glad 

 when my friends, who knew the habits of the creatures, went on 

 shore again, so that I could do likewise. 



But I would weary you were I to recount a quarter of what 

 interested me during several visits to tropical Queensland, which 

 is a veritable naturalist's paradise, and should be visited by all 

 who wish to see Nature in her most bewitching moods. 



[The paper was illustrated by a large series of lantern slides. 

 — Ed. Vict. J}^at.] 



