198 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



flaunted are true, perfect and pure, however cunningly, 

 however boldly by their means adniiration is challenged. 

 The true lover knows too that in her least conspicuous 

 moods, Nature is as consistent and as wonderful as when 

 in her exuberance she carpets a continent with flowers, 

 and when all the forests of a country, at her bidding, don a 

 mantle of yellow. 



To exaggerate any of her methods were needless. She 

 is never ugly, for in her seemingly forbidding moods she 

 wears a smiling face. The smiles may not be apparent to 

 all, but they are there for those who expect and look for them. 



Let a mangrove swamp be taken as an illustration of an 

 untoward aspect of Nature, and see whether among the 

 apparent confusion, and the mud and slime and the 

 unpleasant odours, there are not many proofs of good- 

 humour, kindly disposition, real prettiness, and orderly 

 and systematic purpose. 



On the deltas and banks of all the rivers and creeks of 

 North Queensland and on many of the more sheltered 

 beaches, the mangrove flourishes, that ambitious tree which 

 performs an important function in the scheme of Nature. 

 Its botanical title reveals its special character — Rhizaphora. 

 Very diverse indeed are the means by which plants are 

 distributed. While some are borne, some fly and others 

 float. The mangrove is maritime. While still pendant 

 from the pear-shaped fruit of the parent tree, the seed, a 

 spindle-shaped radicle, varying in length from a foot to 4 feet, 

 germinates — ready to form a plant immediately upon 

 arrival at a suitable locality. A sharp spike at the apex 

 represents the embryo leaves ready to unfold, while the 

 roots spring from the opposite and slightly heavier end. 

 The weight is so nicely adjusted that the spindle floats 

 perpendicularly or nearly so, when owning a separate 

 existence from the parent tree, it drops into the water, and 

 begins its remarkable career. 



It has been suggested that the viviparity of the man- 

 grove is a survival of a very remote period in the develop- 

 ment of the earth — that a mangrove swamp represents an 



