304 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND CH. xm 



Another sort there were, quite black, whose manner of 

 living was most extraordinary. They inhabited the inside 

 of the branches of one sort of tree, the pith of which they 

 hollowed out almost to the very end of the branches, 

 nevertheless the tree flourished as well to all appearance 

 as if no such accident had happened to it. When first we 

 found the tree, we of course gathered the branches, and were 

 surprised to find our hands instantly covered with legions of 

 these small animals, who stung most intolerably ; experience, 

 however, taught us to be more careful for the future. 

 Eumphius mentions a similar instance to this in his 

 Herbarium Amboinense, vol. ii. p. 257; his tree, however, 

 does not at all resemble ours. 



A third sort nested inside the root of a plant which 

 grew upon the bark of trees in the same manner as mistletoe. 1 

 The root was the size of a large turnip, and often much 

 larger ; when cut, the inside showed innumerable winding 

 passages in which these animals lived. The plant itself 

 throve to all appearance not a bit the worse for its numer- 

 ous inhabitants. Several hundreds have I seen, and never 

 one but what was inhabited ; though some were so young as 

 not to be much larger than a hazel nut. The ants them- 

 selves were very small, not above half as large as our red 

 ants in England ; they sting indeed, but so little that it was 

 scarcely felt. The chief inconvenience in handling the roots 

 came from the infinite number ; myriads would come in an 

 instant out of many holes, and running over the hand tickle 

 so as to be scarcely endurable. Rumphius has an account 

 of this very bulb and its ants in vol. vi. p. 120, where he 

 describes also another sort, the ants of which are black. 



The fourth kind were perfectly harmless, at least 

 they proved so to us, though they resembled almost 

 exactly the white ants of the East Indies, the most 

 mischievous insect I believe known in the world. Their 

 architecture was, however, far superior to that of any other 

 species. They had two kinds of houses, one suspended on 

 the branches of trees, the other standing upright on the 



1 Species of Myrmecodia or Hydnophytum. 



