BY C. HEDLEY, ESQ. II 



mate, who were employed in t lie vicinity of a large swamp in which 

 these mangroves grew, amused themselves one holiday by searching- 

 for " sugar bags." Whilst thus engaged, they found a patch of 

 timber where the bees were particularly numerous, being at the same 

 time surprised at the discovery, as it is unusual for blacks to 

 overlook so many bees' nests in one locality. Having eaten a 

 quantity of the honey, they shortly afterwards returned to their 

 camp, when they each soon experienced severe internal pains, 

 attended by considerable distention of the stomach. One man 

 procured relief from these distressing symptoms by use of brandy 

 after the well-known proprietary medicine "pain-killer" had been tried 

 to no purpose Meanwhile, his companion grew worse, was rolling 

 in agony on the ground, and had concluded that he was about to 

 die. and was only relieved by a repetition of the same treatment. 

 These men were afterwards informed by the blacks that it was their 

 custom to refrain from cutting out those bees' nests which occurred 

 in the vicinity of rhizophora swamps. I noticed that a Polynesian 

 laborer chose the arched root of a rhizophora when selecting a piece 

 of wood such as would be most suitable for making a bow from, and 

 a native of one of the Solomon Islands informed me, that in his own 

 country the sprouting fruit of this tree was commonly regarded as 

 being edible. 



Avicennia officinalis, Linn. — Many cattle that would, doubtless,, 

 have perished during the recent protracted drought from 

 failure of other fodder, were sustained by browsing on the foliage of 

 the white mangrove. At one homestead I noticed that the cows 

 ran up and collected every time that an axe was used, in the expec- 

 tation of a few limbs of this mangrove being lopped off for their 

 consumption. The influence of this diet on the quality of the milk 

 was unmistakable, for it gave it a very characteristic flavour The 

 only use to which the wood is put is, according to my experience, 

 that of affording material for knees in boat-building. The Avi- 

 cennia officinalis is evidently a very slowly-growing tree, and, 

 moreover, it does not spring up again when once cut down, for 

 clearings made a dozen years since amongst these trees have all 

 along remained bare. 



