Human beings, and occasionally animals lower in the scale, deviate
distressingly in their conduct from the general. Plants, too, though
lacking the organ of brain, are subject to aberrations of foliage
almost as fantastical as the mental bent which in man is displayed by the
sticking of straws in the hair. "Phyllomania" is the recognised term for
this waywardness. One of the trees of this locality, the raroo (CAREYA
AUSTRALIS), seems singularly prone to the infirmity, for without apparent
cause it abandons habitual ways and clothes its trunk and branches with
huge rosettes of small, slight, and ineffective leaves, evidence,
probably, of vital degeneration.

Among the beautiful trees of this Island there is one, PITHECOLOBIUM
PRUINOSUM, possessing features of attraction during successive phases of
growth. The young branches, foliage, and inflorescence, are coated with
minute silky hair, as if dusted with bronze of golden tint. The dense,
light, semi-drooping foliage produces a cloud-like effect, to which the
great masses of buff flowers add a delightful fleeciness, while the ripe
pods, much twisted and involved (to carry similitude as far as it may),
might be likened to dull lightning in thunderous vapour. The tree
flourishes in almost pure sand within a few yards of salt water, and,
being hardy and of clean habit, might well be used decoratively.

Standing with its feet awash at high tide, the huge fig-tree began life
as a parasite, the seed planted by a beak-cleaning bird in a crevice of
the bark of its forerunner. In time the host disappeared, embraced and
absorbed. Now the tree is a sturdy host. Another fig envelops some of its
branches, two umbrella-trees cling stubbornly to its sides, a pandanus
palm grows comfortably at the base of a limb, tons of staghorn,
bird's-nest, polypodium, and other epiphytal ferns, have licence to