Page 273

Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places

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New South Wales (continued) well to all appearance as if no such accident had happned to it. When first we found the tree we of course gatherd the branches and were surprizd to find our hands instantly coverd with legions of these small animals who stung most intolerably; experience however taught us to be more carefull 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 in the inside of the root of a Plant      which grew on the Bark of trees in the same manner as Miseltoe; the root was as large as a large turnip and often much larger; when cut the inside shewd innumerable winding passages in which these animals livd; 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, tho some were so young as not to be much larger than a hasel nut. The ants themselves were very small, not above half as large as our red ants in England. They stung indeed but so little that it was scarce to be felt: the cheif inconvenience in handling the roots came Voyaging Accounts © Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) *269, February 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-273.html