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Show 516 MR. J. J. LISTER ON THE NATURAL [Dec. 4, which is peculiar to the island. Almost impenetrable thickets of a species of screw-pine grow on the shore-cliff in many places, and beds of another species with long arching leaves, more than six feet in length, often occur in the higher part. Within the line of shore-plants the high bush begins and extends to the summit. Many of the trees are of great size, frequently, I believe, attaining 200 feet in height. Several of them send out buttresses at the base, which often stretch far out from the tree along the ground. This was particularly noticed in one of the tallest trees, which always went by the name of " the buttress-tree." W e only found it in fruit and young bud, but Prof. Oliver tells me that it belongs to the Order Myrtacese, and is a species peculiar to the island. Another Myrtaceous tree, Barringtonia racemosa, was conspicuous with its beautiful hanging racemes of white flowers. Ery-thrina indica, a Leguminous tree with fine clusters of large crimson flowers, also occurred, and a Rubiaceous shrub, Randia densiflora, with small whitish fragrant flowers, was common. Many kinds of epiphytal and climbing plants were abundant, among which a new species of Hoya (the wax-flower of greenhouses) was one of the most conspicuous, festooning the trees and rocks with its shining fleshy leaves and hanging umbels of crimson and pink flowers, and its tough though slender stems formed one of the commonest obstacles to our progress through the bush. The great Birds' Nest Fern (Aspjlenium nidus), with its fine crown of long arching fronds, was one of the greatest ornaments of the woods, growing on a fallen tree or high aloft on a branch. Altogether some 50 species of flowering plants were obtained. These have been examined at Kew, and several appear to belong to new species. Sixteen kinds of ferns were collected, and two of them, an Acrostichum and an Asplenium, are peculiar to the island. In concluding this brief account of the plants of Christmas Island, I may mention a minute myxomycetous fungus which was growing on a damp log. When I brought it home and showed it to my father, he pronounced it to be Dictydium cernuwn, a specimen of which, as it happened, he had obtained two days before in a wood near London, a remarkable instance of the wide range of these minute spored organisms. V. MAMMALS. P T E R O P U S NATALIS, Thomas, P. Z. S. 1887, p. 511, pi. xii. Specimens of this fruit-eating Bat were obtained during the visit of the ' Flying-Fish,' and so named by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, who found it to be a new species, most closely allied to one from Lombock. There was a tree in Flying-Fish Cove where they used to hang up during the day, but some were often seen flying'over the tree-tops in bright sunlight, and then they appeared of a rich brown colour, owing to the semitransparency of the wings. A small insectivorous Bat also exists on the island (seen by Dr. Dunlop, R.N., and myself), but no specimens were obtained. |