106 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Continuing my journey, the tropic of Capricorn was crossed as 

 the steamer entered Keppel Bay, the shipping port of Rock- 

 hampton ; and soon after leaving this numerous islands were 

 passed, and we began to feel the calming influence of tiie Great 

 Barrier Reef. The islands varied very much in size and shape. 

 Some were almost bare ; others were clothed with what seemed to 

 me pine trees, probably Arancaria Cunninghamii, Ait, Moreton 

 Bay Pine. Unfortunately we passed through the greater part of 

 the most picturesque part — the Whitsunday Passage, named 

 by Captain Cook — before daybreak, but on my return trip 

 I saw the whole of it in daylight, and could not help admiring 

 the skill of Cook and of Flinders in making their first voyages up 

 that island-studded coast. 



On arrival at Bowen we had a few hours on shore, so made 

 for a rocky hill about a mile inland, in order to get a glimpse 

 of the surrounding country, which was very bare and dry. An 

 acacia was in full bloom, also Tecoma Australis, with its pretty 

 buff-coloured flowers. Several other shrubs here were strange to 

 me. Seeing some Cocoanut Palms in the distance, we went 

 towards them, and on our way saw the Pandanus Palm, or Screw 

 Pine, for the first time. I do not know the explanation of the term 

 " Screw Pine." In appearance they much resemble the Yuccas, 

 or Adam's Needles, of our gardens, but are furnished with stilt- 

 roots like a Mangrove. The stalks of the bunches of fruit or 

 seed are wonderfully tougli, as we expended a lot of energy in 

 trying to remove a bunch, without success. From appearance 

 they seem to hang on the trees for years, until, by swaying to and 

 fro, the stem is gradually reduced to a few fibres. The sectional 

 fruits are, I believe, used as food by the aborigines, and being 

 of an orange -scarlet colour when fresh, form a pretty object. 

 Just here I collected, for one of our members, some mud from a 

 dried-up swamp, which we may hear something of later on. 

 Close by, in a Chinaman's garden, I saw for the first time 

 growing such tropical fruits as cocoanuts, pineapples, bananas, 

 mangoes, &c. Growing in a hedge were some plants of Abrus 

 precatorius, with the seed-pods just bursting and exposing the 

 well-known scarlet seeds with the black patch, sometimes called 

 *' prayer seeds." 



Reaching Townsville next morning, I should have liked to 

 have gone ashore to see the well-known Acacia Vale Gardens, 

 but time did not permit ; and as I found that our old member, 

 Mr. E. M. Cornwall, author of those interesting notes in Vic- 

 torian Naturalist, xii , p. 6, was located some distance up country, 

 I should not have been able to meet him either, so I left at mid- 

 day by the s.s. Palmer to go through the famed Hinchinbrooke 

 Channel. Unfortunately we were late in getting away from 

 Townsville, so only reached Lucinda Point, at the commencement 



