132 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
Adaptation against intense light and dry conditions. 
The occurrence of Casuarina stricta on the Narrabeen. 
shales (Mr. Cambage’s classical paper). 
Those to whom this class of botany is new might find 
much to attract them in an excellent though non-technical 
work, entitled ‘‘Botany of To-day,”’ by G. F. Scott Elliott. 
Its opening paragraph is suggestive and appropriate. 
“The Botany of to-day is a vast subject, and intricately 
connected with almost every art and craft that man has ever 
invented. It is also an infinitely varying and complexly de 
veloping science, dealing not merely with the discoveries of 
mankind, but with life itself.’ 
—— 
NOTE ON THE SALT WATER MOSQUITO. 
(Culex vigilax, Skuse.) 
(By Miss Gladys H. Froggatt.) 
We spent our recent holiday at Cronulla on the cliff to- 
wards Port Hacking. While there my, attention was drawn 
to the rock pools on the cliffs just above high water mark. 
These pools were filled, apparently by salt water spray, and 
were alive with mosquito larvae and pupae in all stages of 
development. The rock pools below high water mark, and 
which were covered- at every high tide, contained no mos- 
quitos. On the top of the cliff there was a freshwater pond 
several feet in depth, overgrown with water weeds and 
bushes, which was filled by the soakage of the hill over the 
sandstone; and though this fresh water trickled over the 
rocks and formed other rock pools of freshwater there were 
no mosquito larvae in either the waterhole or overflow. 
When these larvae were brought home they were divided 
into two lots: One half was put into seawater from the harbor 
at Circular Quay; the remainder was put into fresh water 
drawn from a tap. The larvae seemed equally happy and at 
home in the fresh as in the salt water. 
‘In the fresh water pond and pools on the cliffs were 
frogs and tadpoles, so that most probably they had ‘eaten the 
mosquito larvae, and as frogs do not enter salt water the 
larvae in the salt pools above high water mark would have no 
