THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALISY. lil 
It is interesting to notice how the young plants of 
-Lyonsia reticulata run straight up the stems of the tree 
they have grown near; the manner of climbing is rather 
curious, the under part of the running shoot being cov- 
ered intermittently with a thick fibre-like growth, which 
clings with such tenacity that you have to pull off the 
bark of the tree with the creeper, for it will not loose its 
hold. 
The Cork Creeper is aided in its climbing by tiny re- 
curved hooks at the base of each pinnate leaf, and it is 
difficult to realise the strength of these tiny thorns un- 
til you have attempted to force your way through a thicket 
of the fern-like foliage. 
The Lawyer Palm, Calamus Australis, is another 
plant that climbs with the aid of recurved hooks. A beau- 
tiful plant, with its graceful bright green foliage, and its 
red-brown stems covered with fine cactus-like thorns. 
Leaning gracefully against the nearest plants or shrubs, it 
sends forth long rapier-like feelers, densely covered with 
recurved hooks, which, clutching anything in their way 
in a grip which makes escape seem well-nigh impossible, 
enable the plant to wander on over the bushes in a grim, 
relentless way. 
THE MOLE CRICKET, ‘““GRYLLOTALPA 
COARCTATA.”’ 
By Miss Mabel N. Brewster. 
On a bright afternoon of November, 1915, I heard 
several crickets chirping, and going carefully towards the 
sound till I had located them, I pulled up a number of 
plants of the Umbrella Sedge (Cyperus), for crickets love 
roots of plants. JI turned over the soil and found a beau- 
tiful little cricket home, with two little doorways lead- 
ing into a tiny underground cavern about two inches in 
diameter. Its walls were quite firm and strong, and near 
this little home were a small and a large cricket. 
I then turned over an old tree-stump log and. gently 
scraped lumps of earth adhering to it, and, to my sur- 
prise, found that two of the lumps were little ‘‘egg- 
room”’ caverns, each with about 200 eggs in it. The eggs 
are brown and rounded. In one nest were two tiny baby 
erickets; one was just emerging from the egg, and was 
quite white. Under the log were also crickets in all 
stages of development, and there were two adults. I 
