MAY 1770 PLANTS AND INSECTS 273 



of insects, though indeed that fact wanted not any additional 

 proofs. 



29th. We went ashore and found several plants which 

 we had not before seen ; among them, however, were still 

 more East Indian plants than in the last harbour ; one kind 

 of grass which we had also seen there was very troublesome 

 to us. Its sharp seeds were bearded backwards, and when- 

 ever they stuck into our clothes were by these beards pushed 

 forward till they got into the flesh. This grass was so 

 plentiful that it was hardly possible to avoid it, and, with 

 the mosquitos that were likewise innumerable, made walking 

 almost intolerable. We were not, however, to be repulsed, 

 but proceeded into the country. The gum-trees were like 

 those in the last bay, both in leaf and in producing a very 

 small proportion of gum; on the branches of them and 

 other trees were large ants' nests, made of clay, as big as a 

 bushel, something like those described in Sir Hans Sloane's 

 History of Jamaica, vol. ii. pp. 221 to 258, but not so smooth. 

 The ants also were small, and had white abdomens. In 

 another species of tree, Xanthoxyloides mite, a small sort of 

 black ant had bored all the twigs, and lived in quantities 

 in the hollow part where the pith should be ; the tree 

 nevertheless flourishing and bearing leaves and flowers upon 

 those very branches as freely and well as upon others that 

 were sound. Insects in general were plentiful, butterflies 

 especially. With one sort of these, much like P. Semele, Linn., 

 the air was for the space of three or four acres crowded to 

 a wonderful degree ; the eye could not be turned in any 

 direction without seeing millions, and yet every branch and 

 twig was almost covered with those that sat still. Of these 

 we took as many as we chose, knocking them down with 

 our caps, or anything that came to hand. On the leaves 

 of the gum-tree we found a pupa or chrysalis, which shone 

 as brightly as if it had been silvered over with the most 

 burnished silver, which it perfectly resembled. It was 

 brought on board, and the next day came out into a 

 butterfly of a velvet black changeable to blue ; the wings, 

 both upper and under, were marked near the edges with 



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