82 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
Of late years considerable interest has been 
evinced in the matter, and committees of inves- 
tigation have been appointed in different parts of 
the globe for the purpose of devising some means 
whereby the evil effects of insect ravages may be 
minimised as much as possible. 
Most of these investigations have been carried j 
out on a strictly scientific basis, and they have \ 
not only been the means of enabling us to increase j 
our knowledge of the extent of the insect-world 4 
but they have also given us an opportunity of , 
obtaining an insight into the life histories ( >f J 
insects in general, and of that of insect pests in 
particular. 
This systematic study of insect habits and 
characteristics has shown more clearly than any 
other branch of Zoology, the exact relations in 
which insects and plants hand to one another; 
and it has enabled us to appreciate the more fully 
that theory of “adaptation of insects to plants, 
and of plants to insects, and the mutual de- 
pendence of the one upon the other”, which the 
great master-mind of Darwin conceived and pro- 
pounded upwards of a quarter of a century ago. 
J. H. Cooke. 
A Coral Island on the Great BarrierReef. 
We left Sandy Cape, a Northern point of Trazeos 
Island about 8.30. a. m. and steamed away to Lady 
Eliot Island. I can’t give you the exact position’of 
the Island, but it lies, I think, east of Gladstone on 
the Queensland Coast, and is at the S. E. corner of 
the Great Barrier Rqef. The Light-house is first 
seen; this comes into view from the deck of the 
steamer at a distance of about 11 miles, and 13 from 
the bridge. When you can first really see the 
Island it looks like a long, low, black bank against 
the sky, with the Lighthouse standing isolated in 
the centre. Is the black mass all coral, I asked? “No, 
those are trees.” Trees on a Coral Island ! Here 
was the first blow to my preconceived notions of 
what a coral Island ought to be. A few graceful 
palms I did not mind, but clumps of trees! Nearer 
still a stretch of what looked like light, brown 
sand, (but it was coral.) Then a low white bank. I 
lost sight of the Island for a moment as the 
steamer turned, and when I saw it again, being 
now quite close, it burst upon me with a thrill of 
surprise. A long, low bank of white coral; abso- 
lutely white it looked; white as the coral of one’s 
* Extract from a letter from Miss J. E. 
Taylor Maryborough , Queensland to , T. Mellard 
JReade. Esqr. Liverpool . 
dreams, white as driven snow against the deep blue 
colour of the water. This is all that can be seen, 
a shelving bank of white coial, isolated masses of 
trees, the lighthouse, and two small woodenhouses. 
I should judge that the Island is about threequar- 
ters of a mile long, and half a mile broad. We all got 
into a boat and went ashore. White masses of coral 
gleam through the clear water which is of the love- 
liest colors, in patches of brilliant, emerald green 
and sapphire blue. On landing you think how 
different this is from the coral atoll one has so 
often read of, the ring of white, set in a blue ocean, 
the few graceful palm trees raising their heads 
heaven-wards, and within, the pale green waters 
of the Lagoon. The beach here is made up of 
broken pieces of coral of every size, shape, and 
form, and in every state of wear, from fresh pieces 
recently detached from the living coral, to pieces 
worn so thin that they look like artificially 
smoothed marble. 
When you mount this bank which has a max- 
imum height of twelve feet above the sea level, you 
see neither Lagoon, nor bare expanse of white coral 
rock, but an exceedingly level stretch of grass- 
grown land. Here and there, in patches, are bare 
spaces of grey coral conglomerate, grey as any 
ancient limestone of carboniferous times and 
evidently founded upon the parent reef, for pieces 
of coral rock of all Shapes and sizes, together with 
imbedded shells are plainly to be seen. The grass 
consists of conch grass, Kangaroo grass (which was 
! planted here by the lighthouse keepers wife) and 
one on two other kinds. One on two small plants 
as wild Carrot, sour grass, and others some with 
small succulent leaves, but none of any size. Two 
trees appear to flourish on the Island; the Pan- 
da uns (or Bread fruit tree as it is commonly called 
here, though it is not' the true bread fruit), the 
other, whose name I do not at present know, grows 
in close clusters. The tops of the trees are shorn 
smooth in a regular curve, ascending gradually 
from the ocean side of the Island. The leaves are 
large and green, sub-rotund in shape with entire 
margins, venation reticulate on the pennate type. 
The wood when dry is very friable, crumbling to 
the touch. A third tree has been planted there 
and seems to do well; its leaves are said to be 
peculiarly fattening to goats. Of land fauna 
there is little except grasshoppers, which are a 
