KENNEDIA-KIDNEY BEAN. 



13 



New Holland, the last syllable being strongly ac- 

 cented and much prolonged. It is from this that the 

 systematic name which we have adopted is derived. 

 The structure of the teeth in this animal is peculiar, 

 and indicates a miscellaneous figure, the same as 

 many of the rats are, though its chief subsistence is 

 understood to be vegetable. It has six incisive teeth, 

 two canines, two false grinders, and eight true ones 

 in the upper jaw ; the same number of grinders, true 

 and false, and two incisive teeth, in the lower jaw, 

 but no canine teeth. The upper jaw, therefore, par- 

 takes more of the character of a carnivorous, and the 

 lower more of that of a rodent animal. The first in- 

 cisive tooth in the upper jaw is much longer than the 

 others, and also stronger, and has three rounded pro- 

 tuberances in the front side ; the second tooth is small, 

 and resembles the teeth of the carnivorous marsupial 

 animals. The last tooth of the superior incisives is 

 very small ; and there is a vacancy between them 

 and the teeth in the rear, by which means it ap- 

 proaches still more to the rodentia. The hind legs 

 are much longer than the fore ones ; the feet on them 

 want the thumbs, or fifth toes ; and the two inner 

 toes are united nearly in the same manner as in the 

 kangaroos. The tail is long and very stout. ; and the 

 marsupium in the females is complete, but contains 

 only two mammae, at least in the specimens which 

 have been examined with sufficient care ; but it is 

 possible that, as is the case with various marsupial 

 animal*, these appendages may wholly or nearly dis- 

 appear when not required, and be developed only as 

 they are wanted. 



It is understood that, notwithstanding the trace of 

 carnivorous character in the teeth of this animal, its 

 food is wholly vegetable, and it lives indiscriminately 

 upon green herbage and upon dry, the peculiar struc- 

 ture of its incisive teeth enabling it to gnaw the lat- 

 ter in the same manner as a rat. They live concealed 

 among stones, or in the bush, or thick shrubby under- 

 wood, which is so common in that part of the world ; 

 and the sound or cry which they utter is very similar 

 to that of the rat. From the length and strength of 

 their hind legs, as compared with the fore ones, they 

 are very dexterous and powerful leapers, although in 

 regular motion upon all-fours they are far from being 

 so swift or graceful as the common rats. They are 

 very numerous, especially in the rocky and bushy 

 parts of the south of New Holland ; and it is not a 

 little curious that not only the marsupium, but the 

 form of the kangaroo, is preserved in this, which is al- 

 most the smallest native quadruped of New Holland. 

 This fact, that the whole of the mammalia of that 

 country which are vegetable feeders, should be leap- 

 ing animals, and not walking ones, is by no means an 

 unimportant key to the physical geography of the 

 country. When the herbage, or surface of vegetation, 

 is continuous and perennial, as it is in those extensive 

 plains by the banks of the great rivers, the grazing 

 animals are generally of large size and slow in their 

 motions, not given to migration, and having no occa- 

 sion for it. This was the case with a great extent of 

 North America at the time when it was discovered by 

 Europeans ; and it is now the case with many of the 

 planes of Central and Southern America, where cattle 

 from the east have been introduced. Near the bor- 

 ders of the great desert again, which stretches obli- 

 quely from south west to north east, over great part 

 of the breadth of Africa, the different regions are 

 periodically burnt up in the drought ; but become 



fertile, and covered with a herbage which is nearly 

 continuous, after the rain sets in, which !it does diffe- 

 rently in the different latitudes. This is the appro- 

 priate pasture for ruminants of lighter make and 

 fleeter limbs ; and accordingly we rind that it is the 

 grand resort of the numerous and beautiful family of 

 the antelopes. When the pasturage is still continuous, 

 but lies upland, so that its quantity is not so great as 

 in the places to which we have alluded, it becomes 

 the proper pasturage of the sheep ; and when we get 

 to a still higher elevation, or more broken ground, 

 where rocks and precipices alternate with patches of 

 verdure, we come to the natural locality of the goat, 

 which is the last ruminant animal on the cliff, in like 

 manner as the antelope is the last one on the margin 

 of the desert ; but all these animals belong to one 

 class, and form a regular succession from the ox to the 

 goat on the mountain, or the antelope in the desert ; 

 and there is no resemblance among them to any of 

 the marsupial animals which graze. The character- 

 istic ones of these are found only in Australia, where 

 they leap from patch to patch, and can partially use 

 their fore paws in the eating of their food. In coun- 

 tries where there are browsing animals which consume 

 the green leaf of the ground vegetation, there are 

 | ground animals of the rat family, which, in great 

 i part, live upon the fallen seeds ; and just as we 

 ! find the kangaroo taking the place of the ruminants 

 in Australia, we find the kanguroo-rat partly occupy- 

 ing the place of the common rat, and other rodentia 

 represented by species of marsupial animals which, 

 like the kangaroo-rat, are not so decidedly herbivo- 

 rous as the typical kanguroos, and yet cot, strictly 

 speaking, carnivorous animals, but miscellaneous in 

 their feeding. 



The kanguroo-rat is about the size of a small rabbit. 

 i The body rather exceeds a foot in length, and the 

 I tail is fully a foot. The fore legs are only between 

 i three and four inches long ; but the hind ones mea- 

 ' sure as much as ten inches. It is a very gentle and 

 timid animal, very easily tamed, but not particularly 

 interesting in its manners. It is eaten by the abori- 

 gines, w ho are not very choice in their feeding ; but 

 its flesh is small in quantity, and inferior in quality. 



KENNEDI A (Ventenat). A genus of climbing 

 plants, natives of Australia, belonging to Lcgumi- 

 ' noses. Generic character: calyx two-lipped, upper 

 lip two-toothed, lower one three-cleft ; standard re- 

 flexed ; pod linear, compressed, contracted between 

 each seed. This genus are favourite green-house 

 i plants, grow freely in a mixture of loam and peat, 

 j and are propagated by cuttings. 



KERRIA (Decandolle). An ornamental deci- 

 duous shrub, said to be a native of Japan, belonging 

 to RosacecB. It is of the easiest culture, and has 

 lately emerged from the green-house into the open 

 | air. When first introduced it was called Corchorus 

 1 Japonicus. 



KIDNEY BEAN. Is the Phaseolus vulgaris of 



i Linnaeus, a well known culinary vegetable. There 



are two principal species in our gardens viz., annual 



\ dwarfs and runners, the pods of which are used when 



' green and tender. Those of the dwarfs are also a 



i favourite pickle. The runners, both scarlet and white 



flowered, are at once ornamental and most useful 



! plants, being very productive, and continuing to 



i yield pods till killed by frost : for, being tropical 



I plants, they are extremely impatient of the least 



degree of frost. The runners are, properly speaking, 



