VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 279 
that might scarcely be suspected 
to be capable of practical demon- 
stration in the case of a leaf gall. 
A very interesting verification of 
the adage, however, is afforded 
by our Mangrove 
“ Camelia.” On 
examining the 
single ‘“ button- 
hole” example 
with three di- 
verging normal 
- W. Saville-Kent, Photo. 
leaves in the 
photograph reproduced, three hemispherical ele- 
vations may be seen on the edge of one of the 
petal-like sub-divisions which show white against 
the dark background of the left-hand leaf. <A 
fourth is also visible more to the right. It 
might be imagined from their smooth spheroidal 
contour that they were adherent drops of water. 
In place of this they are, however, the product 
of a second species of gall-insect which has 
inoculated with its ovipositor the leaves already 
metamorphosed by its predecessor. 
A vegetable freak that will be tolerably 
familiar to all who have visited the remote Nor 
West is depicted in the accompanying figure. It 
portrays a branchlet with attached blossoms of a 
member of the pea tribe, Crotu/aria Cunningham, 
whose flowers bear a most grotesque resemblance 
to little green brown-striped birds. The bush pro- L 
ducing them averages a height of from three to four RIRD-PEA, ROBBUCK BAY, W.A. 
or five feet, and is particularly abundant on the sand hills close to the sea-shore in the 
vicinity of Broome, Roebuck Bay, Western Australia. One such bush is in fact included 
in the foreground of the Chapter-heading illustration of Broome Creek reproduced on 
