210 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



Sometimes when it is severed with a sharp knife there 

 flows from the cane a fluid bright and limpid as a judge's 

 summing up ; occasionally it is all as dry as dust and as 

 sneezy, and its prickly leaf sheathes the abode of that 

 vexing insect which causes the scrub itch. 



This plant produces lengths of cane similar in every 

 respect to the schoolmaster's weapon — familiar but im- 

 mortal — varying in diameter from a quarter of an inch to 

 an inch and a half, and in length, as some assert, to no less 

 than 500 and 600 feet. Certainly 300 feet is not uncommon, 

 and one can readily concede an additional 100 feet, know- 

 ing the extravagance of the remarkable palm under ordinary 

 circumstances. And the cane weaves and entangles the 

 jungle, binds and links mighty trees together, and with the 

 co-operation of other clinging, and creeping, and trailing 

 plants — some massive as ship's cables, and some thin and fine 

 as fishing-lines — forms compact masses of vegetation to 

 penetrate which tracks must be cut yard by yard. When 

 this disorderly conglomeration of trees and saplings, vines, 

 creepers, trailers and crawlers, complicated and confused, 

 has to be cleared, as civilisation demands the use of the 

 soil, sometimes a considerable area will remain upright, 

 although every connection with Mother Earth is severed, so 

 interlaced and interwoven and anchored are the vines with 

 those clinging to trees yet uncut. Then, in a moment, as 

 some leading strand gives way, the whole mass falls — 

 smothered, bruised, and crushed — to be left for a month 

 and more before the fires destroy the faded relics of the 

 erstwhile gloriously rampant jungle. In all this the lawyer 

 cane is the most aggressive and hostile. Not only are there 

 prickles on the lo-feet thongs, but the leaves and leaf- 

 sheaths are thickly beset. In one species the 6-feet-long 

 leaves bear upon the margins and upper surface long, thin, 

 needle-like points, black and glossy, and attaining a length 

 of 3 inches ; the main rib bears stout re-curved prickles, 

 while the sheaths which envelop the cane are densely 

 covered with dark brown or black points i inch and more 

 long. 



