Mar.,1 

 1915 J 



Kershaw, A Naturalist in Northern Queensland. 165 



Macgillivray found the tail feathers of a Lovely Wren, Malurus 

 amabilis, adhering to a bunch still attached to the tree. A 

 small dog which occasionally accompanied us had great trouble 

 with them. When they stuck to his feet he sat down and 

 attempted to remove them, only to get more on his head and 

 back, and his excited efforts only made matters worse, until he 

 finally gave up in despair. The well-known Queensland Black 

 Bean, Castanospcrmum australe, grows generally on the out- 

 skirts of the scrub, climbing to the topmost branches of the tall 

 trees. A Fig-tree, Ficits glomerata, was remarkable for its great 

 clusters of fruit attached close to the trunk. Several other 

 trees were also noticed bearing fairly large fruit, which, how- 

 ever, was often very bitter and apparently inedible. On one 

 of these trees was found a quantity of fleshy fruit of a red 

 colour, with the stone outside, reminding me of the Native 

 Cherr^^, Exocarpiis. The fleshy part, which had a fairly 

 pleasant taste, was about ij inches wide, and the stone, of a 

 compi'essed oval shape, about i inch wide. On returning to 

 camp these were submitted to our blackboys, who stated that 

 the fleshy part was " no good," but the kernel, after being 

 baked in the hot ashes of the fire, was " good." This they 

 illustrated by eating the kernel, after being baked, but we found 

 it very tasteless. Dr. Macgillivray was fortunate enough to 

 find a very fine Hoya in flower — the only one seen during our 

 visit. The corolla was saucer-shaped, zh inches in diameter, 

 the segments broad, pale lavender in colour, with the tips and 

 edges darker. The corona is of a beautiful purple. On being 

 submitted to Mr. F. M. Bailey, Government Botanist of 

 Queensland, on our return, it proved to be a new species, which 

 he has since named after its discoverer. Among other plants 

 found and since determined by Mr. Bailey were a spotted orchid, 

 Dipodium pundatum, \^ar. HamiUonianmn, plentiful along the 

 margin of the scrub ; a lily, Crinum, ? sp., probably new, 

 common in swampy situations in open forest ; two species of 

 ferns — viz., Cheilanthes tenuifolia, very plentiful in open 

 country, both on mainland and on Lloyd Island, and Aspidium 

 cordifoliiim, found along the margin of tea-tree swamps ; 

 Gardenia Kershawi, n. sp., common along margin of scrubs ; 

 and Curcuma australasica. The latter was commonly found 

 in sheltered situations along the margins of the scrub and on 

 Lloyd Island. The flower appears first, growing to a height 

 of about nine or ten inches, followed by the broad, green, 

 elongate leaves. 



Mammals were very scarce. A few kangaroos and wallabies 

 were occasionahy seen, and two of the latter shot. Bandicoots 

 were not uncommon, and we often heard them during the night 

 running among the dead leaves near our camp. The blacks 



