THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 113 



did not secure any. Our road home lay through fairly open 

 country, timbered with eucalypts and tea-tree, Melaleuca 

 leucadendron, many of which bore clusters of the Button Orchid 

 on them, so named trom its button-shaped leaves. White Ants' 

 nests, of all sizes and shapes, occurred amongst the trees. 



A trip down the river in a boat revealed endless beauty spots. 

 Passing some high trees, hundreds of Flying Foxes could be seen 

 hanging from the branches, or scrambling about on being 

 disturbed by our boat. Withm tidal influence a large-flowered 

 yellow Hibiscus was seen, many of its handsome flowers floating 

 on the stream. Lower down crocodiles (called alligators) are 

 sometimes seen sunning themselves on the sandbanks, while on 

 the mangroves numerous beautiful orchids and the Matchbox 

 Bean, Enlada scandeits, with its huge pods two feet long. grow. 

 One day, I saw some pretty chestnut-brown pigeons feeding in 

 the wild nutmeg trees. A few specimens of the brilliant blue 

 butterfly, Papilio Ulysses, were seen, but always too high up or 

 at an inconvenient place for capture. I managed, however, to 

 get a specimen of the beautiful green butterfly, Ornithoptera 

 Priamus ; but, on the whole, insects were scarce, being too early 

 in the season. 



On my return journey I hoped to be able to go up the railway 

 from Cairns to the Barron Falls, on which there is some magnifi- 

 cent scenery in which tropical vegetation is blended with rugged 

 rocks and precipitous cliffs, but unfortunately the non-arrival of 

 the steamer at the advertised time prevented me from carrying 

 out that part of my programme, and I had no further opportunity 

 of putting my foot on land till I reached Brisbane again, where I 

 had about nine hours. Having paid another brief visit to the 

 Botanical Gardens, I went up to Bowen Park Gardens, and was 

 much interested in the splendid palms there. The Royal Palms 

 from Jamaica are splendid specimens. There was a fair collec- 

 tion of orchids in bloom in a hot-house, and an open air fernery 

 contained some very fine specimens of the Stag's-horn Fern, Platy- 

 ceriuiu grande. An hour or so was profitably spent in a visit to 

 the Geological Museum belonging to the Department of Mines, 

 which showed the immense mineral resources of Queensland ; 

 after which we went to the Queensland Museum, where a hurried 

 glance made us wish the steamer would be put off for a day in 

 order to allow us more time to examine the fine collection of 

 objects. The ethnological collection from New Guinea is very 

 good, and a magnificent case of coral, &c., particularly attracted 

 my attention. A brief call upon Mr. H. Tryon, the entomologist 

 to the Department of Agriculture, whom I found hard at work in 

 his den, concluded my Brisbane programme. 



I reached Sydney again on a Sunday afternoon just in time to 

 get a train for National Park, where I spent a very enjoyable 



