thickness of a man's finger, with long pinnatifid leaves, covered with
sharp spines--and long tendrils growing out of the stem alternately with
the leaves, many of them twenty feet long, covered with strong spines
slightly curved downward, by which the shoots are supported in their
rambling growth. They lay hold of the surrounding bushes and branches of
trees, often covering the tops of the tallest, and turning in all
directions. The seed is a small hard nut, with a thin scaly covering, and
is produced in great abundance.

The shoots, which are remarkably tough, I afterwards found were used by
the natives in making their canoes. These canoes are small, and
constructed of bark, with a small sapling on each side to strengthen
them, the ends of which are tied together with these shoots.

The growth of this plant forms one of the greatest obstacles to
travelling in the bush in this district. It forms a dense thicket, into
which it is impossible to penetrate without first cutting it away, and a
person once entangled in its long tendrils has much difficulty in
extricating himself, as they lay hold of everything they touch. On
entering the swamp to examine plants, I was caught by them, and became so
much entangled before I was aware of it, that it took me nearly an hour
to get clear, although I had entered but a few yards. No sooner did I cut
one tendril, than two or three others clung around me at the first
attempt to move, and where they once clasp they are very difficult to
unloose. Abundance of the shoots, from fifteen to twenty feet long, free
from leaves or tendrils, could be obtained, and would be useful for all
the purposes to which the common cane is now applied.

At this spot also I met with Dracontium polyphyllum, a beautiful plant,
belonging to the natural order Aroideae, climbing by its rooting stems to
the tops of the trees, like the common ivy. This plant has narrow pointed
leaves, four inches long, and produces at the ends of the shoots a red
spatha, enclosing a cylindrical spadix of yellow flowers.

In many parts the swamp was completely covered with a very strong-growing
species of Restio (rope-grass). On the open ground, between the beach and
the swamp, were a few large flooded-gums, and a few Moreton Bay ash
trees, and near the beach I found the Exocarpus latifolia.

On the beach, too, just above high-water mark, was a beautiful spreading,
lactescent tree, about twenty feet high, belonging to the natural