628 MR. P. D. MONTAGUE ON THE 
bays and inlets, there are growths of ‘mangrove’ comprising 
an Avicennia, which grows to a considerable size and forms a 
belt of varying width skirting the sandy flats Just below high- 
water mark. Further out in the lagoon, the Avicennia gives place 
suddenly to a true mangrove of the genus Bruguiera, which forms 
another zone, and at the head of the large lagoon extends right 
across to the Avicennia belt along the opposite shore. 
The highest point on the island is 180 feet above sea-level. 
Though the hills and ridges are low, their slopes are steep, with 
much bare and weathered rock showing between the scanty 
vegetation, The level plains are covered with a light, sandy, red 
soil, very fertile when sufficiently watered. The vegetation is of 
a type known collectively as ‘ Spinifea-serub,’ which covers large 
tracts of north-western Australia. Spinifex is the predominant 
plant over most areas; it grows in dense prickly tufts and 
patches, in some places the shrubs so close together that walking 
amongst them is a tortuous and somewhat painful business. 
Next in abundance to the Spinifex is Myoporwm acununatum, 
a shrub with bright green foliage and small white tlowers, very 
attractive to Lycenid butterflies. An Olearia is also common ; 
it is a tall and wiry shrub, with insignificant flowers, and 
small and rather scanty linear leaves, giving little cover. The 
branches generally bear the large cobwebs of a big and handsome 
spider, Vephyla meridionalis. Of the less abundant shrubs must 
be mentioned a Cassia, apparently near C. oligvelada, and a species 
of Croton (Kuphorbiacez), a coarse, rough bush, generally affecting 
the upper slopes of the ridges. Characteristic of the areas 
along the shores may be mentioned a Chenopodiaceous plant, 
Rhagodia billardieri R. Br., forming a bush of moderate pro- 
portions with clusters of inconspicuous green flowers, attractive to 
insects. The almost universally distributed Salsola hah, Linn., 
occurs abundantly, and Frankenia pauciflora grows commonly on 
the limestone rocks, around the sheltered lagoons being seen in 
isolated patches almost down to the water’s edge. Of the more 
abundant herbaceous plants may be mentioned T'richolesma 
seylanicum R. Br., which usually stands alone or in loose clusters 
on bare patches of soil, its bright blue flowers very conspicuous. 
A species of Senecio is also rather common, remarkable in that it 
usually forces its way up through dense patches of Spinifex. 
This brief account of the characteristic vegetation applies only 
after a period of drought, such as there had been previous to our 
visit to the islands. A good shower had fallen in April 1912, 
but it was in all probability insufficient to bring up the majority 
of the herbaceous annuals, which are short-lived, and flourish 
only for a month or two after the heavy tropical rains. At such 
times the island may present a different aspect. 
There is no surface-water on Hermite—or in fact, on any of 
the islands—during the dry season; our water-supply was 
derived from a well, which had ‘been sunk for fifteen feet through 
the porous rock, and which yielded us a permanent though scanty 
