62 TROPIC DAYS 



in Egypt as the "Hand of Mary") decidedly one of the 

 most eager lovers of the sand, to which it keeps strictly. 



Almost within reach from high water are repre- 

 sentatives of a tall, shining-leaved shrub known as 

 Morinda citrifolia, the flower-heads of which merge 

 into a berry which has a most disagreeable odour and 

 a still more objectionable flavour. It is related that 

 when La Peroiise was cast awa}^ on one of the islands 

 of the South Pacific, a native undertook to ward off 

 the pangs of hunger by converting the fruit into an 

 edible dish. But his manipulation seemed but to 

 intensify original nauseousness, and the brave French- 

 man and his companions found semi-starvation more 

 endurable than the repugnant mess. 



Magnificent representatives of the umbrella-tree 

 [Brassaia actinophylla), unique among the many novel- 

 ties of the tropical coast, are massed in groups or stand 

 in solitary grace close to the sea. Queensland has a 

 monopoly over this handsome and remarkable tree, 

 the genus to which it belongs being limited to a single 

 species occurring nowhere else in a native state. Dis- 

 covered by Banks and Solander at Cooktown in 1770, 

 the second record of its existence, it is believed, was 

 made from specimens obtained on this island by Mac- 

 gillivray and Huxley in 1848. Possibly the very trees 

 which attracted their attention still crown their rayed 

 and glossy leaflets with long, radiating rods thickly 

 set with red, stud-like flowers. Such foliage and such 

 flowers would appeal gloriously to an enthusiastic 

 botanist, and to so devoted, indefatigable, and success- 

 ful a searcher after the wonders and the higher truths 

 of the world as Huxley. 



Few of the ornaments of the beach are more notice- 

 able than that known commonty as the sunflower-tree 

 and by the natives as Gin-gee {Diplanthera tetraphylla) , 



