304 SOME ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND © cu. xi 
Another sort there were, quite black, whose manner of 
living was most extraordinary. They inhabited the inside 
of the branches of one sort of tree, the pith of which they 
hollowed out almost to the very end of the branches, 
nevertheless the tree flourished as well to all appearance 
as if no such accident had happened to it. When first we 
found the tree, we of course gathered the branches, and were 
surprised to find our hands instantly covered with legions of 
these small animals, who stung most intolerably ; experience, 
however, taught us to be more careful for the future. 
Rumphius mentions a similar instance to this in his 
Herbarium Amboinense, vol. ii. p. 257; his tree, however, 
does not at all resemble ours. 
A third sort nested inside the root of a plant which 
grew upon the bark of trees in the same manner as mistletoe.! 
The root was the size of a large turnip, and often much 
larger; when cut, the inside showed innumerable winding 
passages in which these animals lived. The plant itself 
throve to all appearance not a bit the worse for its numer- 
ous inhabitants. Several hundreds have I seen, and never 
one but what was inhabited; though some were so young as 
not to be much larger than a hazel nut. The ants them- 
selves were very small, not above half as large as our red 
ants in England; they sting indeed, but so little that it was 
scarcely felt. The chief inconvenience in handling the roots 
came from the infinite number; myriads would come in an 
instant out of many holes, and running over the hand tickle 
so as to be scarcely endurable. Rumphius has an account 
of this very bulb and its ants in vol. vi. p. 120, where he 
describes also another sort, the ants of which are black. 
The fourth kind were perfectly harmless, at least 
they proved so to us, though they resembled almost 
exactly the white ants of the East Indies, the most 
mischievous insect I believe known in the world. Their 
architecture was, however, far superior to that of any other 
species. They had two kinds of houses, one suspended on 
the branches of trees, the other standing upright on the 
1 Species of Myrmecodia or Hydnophytum. 
