Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/331

Rh of insects, though indeed that fact wanted not any additional proofs.

29th. We went ashore and found several plants which we had not before seen; among them, however, were still more East Indian plants than in the last harbour; one kind of grass which we had also seen there was very troublesome to us. Its sharp seeds were bearded backwards, and whenever they stuck into our clothes were by these beards pushed forward till they got into the flesh. This grass was so plentiful that it was hardly possible to avoid it, and, with the mosquitos that were likewise innumerable, made walking almost intolerable. We were not, however, to be repulsed, but proceeded into the country. The gum-trees were like those in the last bay, both in leaf and in producing a very small proportion of gum; on the branches of them and other trees were large ants' nests, made of clay, as big as a bushel, something like those described in Sir Hans Sloane's History of Jamaica, vol. ii. pp. 221 to 258, but not so smooth. The ants also were small, and had white abdomens. In another species of tree, Xanthoxyloides mite, a small sort of black ant had bored all the twigs, and lived in quantities in the hollow part where the pith should be; the tree nevertheless flourishing and bearing leaves and flowers upon those very branches as freely and well as upon others that were sound. Insects in general were plentiful, butterflies especially. With one sort of these, much like P. Semele, Linn., the air was for the space of three or four acres crowded to a wonderful degree; the eye could not be turned in any direction without seeing millions, and yet every branch and twig was almost covered with those that sat still. Of these we took as many as we chose, knocking them down with our caps, or anything that came to hand. On the leaves of the gum-tree we found a pupa or chrysalis, which shone as brightly as if it had been silvered over with the most burnished silver, which it perfectly resembled. It was brought on board, and the next day came out into a butterfly of a velvet black changeable to blue; the wings, both upper and under, were marked near the edges with