10 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



around the posts. I have sat and drank yaqona, or Tcava, the: 

 characteristic beverage of the South Sea Islands, in this house,, 

 and conversed with the owner, but for a Fijian he is exceedingly- 

 taciturn and unsociable. 



In eating hokola, as I have before mentioned, a special fork 

 reserved for the purpose was used. Care was also taken not tO' 

 allow the flesh to touch the lips, the piece on the fork being put 

 well into the mouth and caught with the teeth. It was supposed 

 that excessive eating of human flesh caused the inside of the 

 mouth to become luminous in the dark. 



(To be continued.) 



REVIEW. 



" Handbook of the Flora of New South Wales" by Charles Moore, 

 F.L.S., M.R.B.S.L., &c., assisted by Ernest Betche. Cr. 

 octavo, pp. XV. and 582. Sydney, 1893. 



The distinguished Director of the Botanic Garden of Sydney has 

 ever since his access to office in 1847 been eager to provide a 

 special volume, descriptive of the plants indigenous to the wide 

 territory of New South Wales ; and he now places the results of 

 his well nigh half a century's labours in phytographic researches- 

 before his fellow-colonists and others interested in the vegetation 

 of the oldest Australian province. The appearance of this 

 special " Flora" comparatively late has had one great advantage: 

 the work can thus claim completeness to a very large extent, as 

 the future accession of species of plants, additional to those 

 treated in this volume, can now no longer be large. The book, 

 as in all ordinary cases of this kind, deals exclusively with the 

 vascular plants. The indigenous vegetation of New South Wales- 

 is remarkably rich, because it includes plants of alpine and even 

 glacier-regions, of desert-tracts and subtropical jungles, forming a 

 flora now known to contain 3,353 well-marked indigenous- 

 species of phanerogamous plants and ferns out of the 9,025 of 

 universal Australia (New Zealand excluded) ; therefore the 

 number of species of New South Wales is more than three times 

 as large as that of England, Scotland and Ireland, and even not 

 very much exceeded by the flora of Queensland or that of 

 extra-tropic Western Australia, as far as Melbourne researches 

 have hitherto revealed its proportions. 



As in synoptic works, such as this from Mr. Moore, the 

 descriptions can be but brief and the records of occurrence o;ily 

 be general, in order to press the vast literary material into one 

 handy and inexpensive volume. We find the definitions clear, 

 terse and not over-concise, as extensiveness in these respects can 



