Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/362

304 Another sort there were, quite black, whose manner of living was most extraordinary. They inhabited the inside of the branches of one sort of tree, the pith of which they hollowed out almost to the very end of the branches, nevertheless the tree flourished as well to all appearance as if no such accident had happened to it. When first we found the tree, we of course gathered the branches, and were surprised to find our hands instantly covered with legions of these small animals, who stung most intolerbly; experience, however, taught us to be more careful for the future. Rumphius mentions a similar instance to this in his Herbarium Amboinense, vol. ii. p. 257; his tree, however, does not at all resemble ours.

A third sort nested inside the root of a plant which grew upon the bark of trees in the same manner as mistletoe. The root was the size of a large turnip, and often much larger; when cut, the inside showed innumerable winding passages in which these animals lived. The plant itself throve to all appearance not a bit the worse for its numerous inhabitants. Several hundreds have I seen, and never one but what was inhabited; though some were so young as not to be much larger than a hazel nut. The ants themselves were very small, not above half as large as our red ants in England; they sting indeed, but so little that it was scarcely felt. The chief inconvenience in handling the roots came from the infinite number; myriads would come in an instant out of many holes, and running over the hand tickle so as to be scarcely endurable. Rumphius has an account of this very bulb and its ants in vol. vi. p. 120, where he describes also another sort, the ants of which are black.

The fourth kind were perfectly harmless, at least they proved so to us, though they resembled almost exactly the white ants of the East Indies, the most mischievous insect I believe known in the world. Their architecture was, however, far superior to that of any other species. They had two kinds of houses, one suspended on the branches of trees, the other standing upright on the