rovoking enemies was the lawyer vine, a kind of rattan enclosed
in a rough husk, covered with thousands of crooked prickles. These,
with their outer covering, are about an inch and a quarter in diameter,
and extend to an enormous distance, running up to the tops of lofty
trees, and from thence either descending or pushing onward, or
festooning themselves from stem to stem in graceful curves of
indescribable beauty. From the joints of the parent shoot are thrown
out little slender tendrils, no thicker than a wire, but of great
length, and as dangerously armed as their larger relation. These
miserable little wretches seem always on the watch to claw hold of
something, and if you are unhappy enough to be caught, and attempt to
disengage yourself by struggling, fresh tendrils appear always to lurk
in ambush, ready to assist their companion, who already holds you in
his grasp. I have measured the length of one of these canes, and found
it over 250 paces; and this is not the maximum to which they attain,
for I have been assured by men employed in cutting a telegraph road
through the scrub that they had found some over 300 yards long. They
seem to retain the same circumference throughout their whole length,
and, as the bushman puts everything to some use, the lawyer is divested
of his husk, and takes the place of wire in fencing, being rove through
the holes bored in the posts as though they were ropes. It is almost
needless to add that this cane derives its 'soubriquet' of "lawyer"
from the difficulty experienced in getting free if once caught in its
toils.

Another of the torments to which the traveller is subjected in the
North Australian scrubs, is the stinging-tree ('Urtica gigas'), which
is very abundant, and ranges in size from a large shrub of thirty feet
in height to a small plant measuring only a few inches. Its leaf is
large and peculiar, from being covered with a short silvery hair,
which, when shaken, emits a fine pungent dust, most irritating to the
skin and nostrils. If touched, it causes most acute pain, which is
felt for months afterwards--a dull gnawing pain, accompanied by a
burning sensation, particularly in the shoulder, and under the arm,
where small lumps often arise. Even when the sting has quite died
away, the unwary bushman is forcibly reminded of his indiscretion each
time that the affected part is brought into contact with water. The
fruit is of a pink, fleshy colour, hanging in clusters, a