and Livistona inermis, also occur here. By far the most remarkable
vegetable productions are the larger kinds of climbers. The principal of
these, with a leafless and almost branchless cable-like stem, sometimes
two or three hundred yards in length, rises over the summits of the
tallest trees, and connects one with another in its powerful folds,
occasionally descending to the ground. Another climber, Lestibudesia
arborescens, rises by its slender stems to the tops of the trees, hiding
them in its cascade-like masses and graceful festoons of exuberant
foliage. Besides several other exogenous woody climbers, of which a very
remarkable one is a Bauhinia, with a compressed stem spirally twisted
round its axis--the most interesting is Calamus australis, rising in a
clump, then arching along the ground and from tree to tree in a similar
manner to Flagellaria indica, here also abundant. Among the other plants
of these brushes, are the curious Dracontium polyphyllum, with large
simple and pinnatifid leaves, creeping like ivy up the trunks and lower
branches of the trees--parasitical Loranthaceae, with long dependent
tufts of rush-like leaves--enormous masses of Acrosticum alcicorne and A.
grande, with an occasional Hoya carnosa, Dendrobium, or other epiphyte.
When the soil is rich Caladium macrorhizon grows gregariously in shady
places, and Hellenia coerulea on their margins--and among stones and
sometimes on trees, tufts of Grammitis australis spread out their large
and handsome undivided fronds.

VICTORIA RIFLE-BIRD.

Two species of rat occur here--one is the large bandicoot of India, Mus
giganteus, doubtless introduced by some wrecked vessel, the other is the
pretty little Mus indicus, found on all the islands of the north-east
coast and Torres Strait. Among the birds, we found numbers of the
Megapodius, always a welcome addition to our bill of fare; but our
greatest prize was a new and splendid rifle-bird, which Mr. Gould has
since described from my specimens and named Ptiloris victoriae, as a mark
of respect and gratitude for the patronage bestowed upon his great work
on the Birds of Australia, in the forthcoming supplement to which it will
be figured along with some other novelties of the Voyage of the
Rattlesnake.

Before taking leave of the natural history of the Barnard Group, I must
not omit a pretty butterfly inhabiting the densest parts of the brush; it
is the Hamadryas zoilus of the Voyage of the Astrolabe, erro