UOUN EXPEDITION — NAKKATIVE. 119 



tlie day tiiiic, only secure a scorpidii Ijy digging it out of its bui'row. The latter 

 eaii easily be distinguished by tiie marks at the entrance made by the legs of tiie 

 animal. Tliere is a small hole on the surface with a little flattened-uut hea}) of 

 sand marked all over by curious and very characteristic lines as if the blunt edge 

 of a knife had been pressed down on the sand in such a way that all the short 

 depressions thus made in the sand converged towards the mouth of the buirow. 

 To 11 nd the animal you may have to go down four or five feet till you come to a 

 small chamber in which it lies at rest during tin.! day time. 



Amongst uther Arachnitis the most interesting were two species of, or allieil 

 to, Chelifer, one under the Ijark of a tea tree (Melaleuca sp.), the other amongst 

 the debris under a tig tree. 



iSpitlers were fairly plentiful ; we secured in this part eleven species, of which 

 the most abundant was a species of Isopeda which here as elsewhere was to be found 

 undci' the shelter of stones close to the edge of a water-hole. Probal^ly this spc^cies 

 feeds on the small beetles belonging princijjally to the Carabidie and .Staphilinida' 

 found in the same situation. Amongst plants the two most striking forms, the 

 Cycad and the Palm, have already been alluded to. In the water-holes Nidas 

 major (the fruit of which was obtained only here), Potamogeto)i Teppcri ;ind 

 Triglochiii caliitrapa were growing, and around some of them were thick beds of 

 bulrushes and reeds. The saxatile plants were those characteristic of the region ; 

 lig trees of two species {Ficits platypoda and F. orbicularis)^ and growing amongst the 

 ligs and sheltered and supported by them was a species of native orange {Capparis 

 spiiiosii), very different in the nature of its lax growth from its more common ally 

 C. Rlitcliclli, which forms at times a small tree on the rocky hill sides. Here and 

 there were odd shrubs of the reil-tlowering Grevillea agrijolia, with a mistleto 

 {Loraiit/iiis gibberitiiis) parasitic upon it. Patches t)f Cassia veiii/sfa with yellow 

 blossom, and of Eremoj)hilas with pink and lavender bloom grew on little Hats 

 often high up the rocky sides, and here and there the large yellow tlowers of 

 Ilibbcrtia glaberrii/ia stood out, often fornjing the only bit of bright colour in a 

 shady gorge. 



The characteristic plants of the Upper atepi)es are to be found amongst what 

 Professor Tate has described as the .saxatih; .species, that is those growing on the 

 sides of the gorges, on the basal part of the escarpments of the hills and on the 

 talus which slopes down from the escarpment to the valley below. Out of seventy 

 species of tlowering plants found growing on and restricted to the rocks no fewer 

 than sixty-three are endemic. The saxatile llora of this region has in recent 

 years Ijeen found to extend to outlying ranges such as Mount Olga, and the 



