232 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



delicate green fronds with black hair-like midribs, as well as 

 a variety of mosses and lichens of various hues, embracing 

 green, orange, and crimson, were conspicuous ; and the banks 

 were covered in many spots with the pretty yellow-flowered 

 Thunhergia, and a scarlet-blossomed Convolvulaceous creeper. 

 A yellow and a purple Oxalis were common, as was also a 

 curious plant of the order Crassulacece, the Bryophyllum 

 calycin%m^ which has the power of developing rootlets and 

 leaf-buds from the indentations of its fleshy leaves, and will 

 even continue to grow between sheets of drying-paper. One 

 shrub specially attracted our attention, from the brilliant 

 azure blue tint of its berries ; and the variety of form assumed 

 by the ferns was marvellous, the small fronds of some species 

 clothing the stems of the trees after the manner of ivy, while 

 one (a Lygodium) was a regular twiner, winding itself in 

 coils around the bushes. On damp rocks close to the tanks 

 we noticed a Begonia, with white-spotted dark green leaves ; 

 and some elegant Selaginellas were also met with. Several 

 beautiful little humming-birds were seen hovering over the 

 flowers, and occasionally lighting on the branches of the 

 trees, while multitudes of lizards basked in the sun on 

 the walls, or rustled through the grass close to our feet, 

 but were very difficult to obtain uninjured, as they ran 

 with great agility, and snapped off their tails without the 

 slightest warning. A beautiful little tree-frog {Eyla alho- 

 marginata) was caught sitting on one of the leaves of an 

 Agave. It was of an emerald-green colour above, with the 

 feet pale yellow, and the sucking-discs tinged with vermilion. 

 Insects of many sorts also abounded, and a variety of beauti- 

 ful, though well-known forms of Lepidoptera, were captured. 



* This is a naturalised, not an indigenous plant, being an inhabitant of 

 the Old World. 



