March, 1909.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 187 



An uncanny sight is myriads of large bats, known as Flying 

 Foxes, hanging from the boughs of trees by their toes. They are 

 troublesome to orchardists, playing great havoc on the fruit. 

 The scrub tick, a very minute insect, is a pest that will attack 

 human beings as well as animals, while a much larger one, the 

 cattle tick, is hard for agriculturists to contend with. Cattle 

 attacked by it scratch themselves continually, and the only 

 remedy is to dip all stock periodically, which entails much 

 expense to owners. Before leaving Melbourne I was fortunate 

 in securing from Mr. Charles French, sen., F.L.S., the Govern- 

 ment Entomologist, a letter of introduction to Mr. F. P. Dodds, 

 an enthusiastic collector of beetles and butterflies, and at his 

 home in Kuranda he kindly permitted me to examine his 

 collection, which is a particularly fine one. 



On the return journey I had only sufficient time to pay a brief 

 visit to the Botanical Gardens at Townsville. Among the first 

 objects to attract my attention were some magnificent Bougain- 

 villaeas in flower, the colouring of the floral bracts hanging in 

 racemes being most gorgeous. The showy white flowers of 

 Frangipanni, Pluyneria acuminata, Ait., looked particularly pretty, 

 and growing in close proximity seemed to intensify the vivid 

 blue of Jacaranda mimoscefolia, while plants of variegated 

 foliage such as Caladiums, Combretums, and Ixoras, seen in our 

 State only in hot-houses, were flourishing in the open like 

 weeds. 



On reaching Brisbane I paid another short visit to the 

 Botanical Gardens, and spent the remainder of time available in 

 viewing the various Government offices. 



Weather conditions at Sydney being much more favourable 

 than at the time of my first call, I paid a visit to the Botanical 

 Gardens. Unfortunately, the director, Mr. J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., 

 was absent, but Mr. Betche spent some time showing me over 

 the Herbarium and carpclogical collections, which had greatly 

 increased during the two years which had elapsed since my 

 previous visit. To the kindness of Mr. Boorman I am indebted 

 for a thorough examination of the Botanical Gardens, a notice- 

 able feature of which is the sub-tropical nature of the vegetation, 

 evidence of this being shown by the great collection of the Ficus 

 species, including F. macrophylla, Desf., Moreton Bay Fig, 

 F, Bennettii, Seem, (indigenous to Fiji), and F. religiosa, L. (the 

 sacred fig tree of India), all of which exhibited extraordinary 

 growth. The palms are an attractive feature — the Bungalow 

 Palm, Archontophoenix Cicnninghami, Wendl., Coquito Palm, 

 Juhcea spectahilis, H. B. et K., a native of Chili, as well as a 

 number of species of the genera Cocos, Phoenix, and Sabal, and 

 flourishing specimens of Cordyline, Meryta, Panax, Aralia, and 

 Chrysoglossum, all serve to accentuate the sub-tropical appear- 

 ance. The typical Australian features are the tree ferns, 



