VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 



279 



that might scarcely be suspected 

 to be capable of practical demon- 

 stration in the case of a leaf gall. 

 A very interesting verification of 

 the adage, however, is afforded 

 by our Mangrove 

 " Camelia." On 

 examining the 

 single " button- 

 hole " example 

 with three di- 

 verging normal 

 leaves in the 



photograph reproduced, three hemispherical ele- 

 vations may be seen on the edge of one of the 

 petal-like sub-divisions which show white against 

 the dark background of the left-hand leaf. A 

 fourth is also visible more to the right. It 

 might be imagined from their smooth spheroidal 

 contour that they were adherent drops of water. 

 In place of this they are, however, the product 

 of a second species of gall-insect which has 

 inoculated with its ovipositor the leaves already 

 metamorphosed by its predecessor. 



A vegetable freak that will be tolerably 

 familiar to all who have visited the remote Nor' 

 West is depicted in the accompanying figure. It 

 portrays a branchlet with attached blossoms of a 

 member of the pea tribe, Crotularia Cunninghami, 

 whose flowers bear a most grotesque resemblance 

 to little green brown-striped birds. The bush pro- 

 ducing them averages a height of from three to four B:RD-PEA, ROEBVCK BAY, W.A. 

 or five feet, and is particularly abundant on the sand hills close to the sea-shore in the 

 vicinity of Broome, Roebuck Bay, Western Australia. One such bush is in fact included 

 in the foreground of the Chapter-heading illustration of Broome Creek reproduced on 



