38 



20 — Devoru (Alslonia scholaris). jNToither has the first place there is not the confusion of mixed species, 



slightest business at such altitudes and in such com- The number of speeies is comparatively small, and the 



pany, and I am quite prepared to hear from some number that matter can be counted on two hands. The 



botanist, in years to come, that they differ from the total absence of heavy buttress roots (I do not regard 



devoru and sabi of the rain forests of the pin ins. To the occurrence of No. 29 as normal) and the very 



a timber man's tests, they are the same, and the devoru slight development of root swellings is another charac- 



was particularly remarkable, for it was the only but- teristic. The trunks spring straight from the ground 



tressed tree seen in the mid-mountain forests. Neither as a rule, and should make good mill logs, economical 



has any interest to timber men here, and I mention to cut. The ground is decidedly mossy, and any of 



them merely to show their wide range of habitat. the rougher-holed trees carry moss in the nooks and 



No. 381 — Libocedrus papuana — is Sir William crannies of the bark. The branches of the higher trees 



McGregor's cypress that he mentions in his ascent of are festooned with grey lichen ("old man's beard") 



Aft. Victor iajj a fine tree with a bole of 00 feet and a and this is particularly striking on the crowns of the 



e 



girth at butt of 71 feet. It is a companion to th 

 Phyllocladus and struggles on beyond that species, 



big 



hoop pines. Filmy terns are plentiful on the 

 ground, and on the small branches, but lianas are scarce 



right up to 10,200 feet and probably beyond, though and small. Orchids are plentiful, and they grow much 

 not having penetrated higher, I cannot vouch for this lower on the stems than in the forests of lower alti- 

 tudes, and are therefore more conspicuous. Some are 

 rather prettily coloured, but none is really large and 

 showy. The commonest soil covers, besides the ferns, 

 nre nettle family plants, Elatostema, which here and 



cover an area of 50 yards square 

 several species, having largish leaves, and others so 



small that they resemble the leaves of a maiden-hair 

 fern. 



from my own observation. It reaches its best develop- 

 ment above the mid-mountain belt, at about 8,000 feet. 

 No. 2(39 is an important conifer — Fo&ocarpus cup- 

 resshia syn up. imhrheatus. It. like the Xo. ;}S1, has 



very cypress-like foliage an< 



1 twigs. 



It has a much 

 wider range in altitude than any other of the conifers. 

 I found poor specimens as low as 3,500 feet; it does 



tli ere 



There are 



not, however, seem to thrive much above 7,000 feet, 

 though it was at that altitude that I saw the 

 developed specimens. It will be seen that it almost 



reaches the 5 per cent, line in volume. It yields a 



Scattered here and there are clumps of plants 

 best of the ginger family of which the pretty yellow flower- 

 ing Eriolopha makes a splash of colour in the some- 

 what sombre forest. 



As striking a ground cover 



as 



clear white compact timber that appears to carry no any i s t he tall stemmed moss Dawsonia sp. It covers 



quite large patches of forest soil and is generally taken 



resin. 



No. I5S2— Ouru— -has a particular interest, for it is by the traveller to be a seedling pine tree. It grows 



to about 15 inches high, and gives the forest a very 



temperate climate look. A number of shrubs are found 



wherever a flattish piece of land with the usual soil 



and the broad-leafed forest occurs. The family of 

 back and quarter grains, and would certainly command Melastomacese is well represented and the species have 



FKnderiia pimento! lam t — this genus that has yielded 

 such valuable timber to Queensland, of which the maple 

 (F. chalairaiana) is the best known. Ouru, while of a 

 much lighter colour, has a beautiful sheen on both 



a figure as a silver maple. 



rp 



an extraordinary range of habit from low semi-succu- 

 lent plants to fair-sized somewhat weeping shrubs. 



whieh we last saw thriving at 4,000 feet in the foothill T] ie herbarium Nos. of these species are 346, 360, 403. 

 forests. It seems almost as much at home at 7,000 feet, A little magnolia, No. Stf—Ifrvmys eydopwm—is corn- 



so long as there is a patch of deep soil for it to root in. 

 No. 387 — la ( ffugensia sp.). This tree happened to 

 be represented by rather small individuals. It does 



mon at the higher altitudes. No. 358 — Ardsi sp 



covers 



wide 



patches of ground, its berries are sown 

 like red coral beads among the pretty tapering leaves. 



grow to a big size, and the volume per tree recorded m The immber f myrt l e plants and trees increase as one 



the table is therefore misleading. A bole of 65 feet, 



rises, and as I shall show when describing the mossy 



with a basal growth of 9 feet is quite common. Except jfa^ that a Eugenia becomes the common tree above 

 that the wood is darker, it is hard to separate it from s?000 feet> v very ornamenfa ] shrub is Antholoma 

 No. 384. The loaves are rather similar, but the bark Teighemi, which has yellow drooping bell flowers. No. 



378 (Da ph ni phyllum glance sc ens) is a small tree. No. 

 Xo. 899—Bnimi (Zunthox>,himsp s^Fagara) is a :i7i) is a ghm ^ 10 feet high? and of straggling Iiab i ts , 



thorn-covered tree with an ash leaf, which yields an i )C .i onffill , r t() the Monimiaceae. Two AraTiaceje— Nos. 



is ( 



Efferent. 



exceedingly beautiful, saffron coloured cabinet wood. 

 It is, unfortunately, rare. 



It will be interesting to separate the (ivmnospermae -^ 

 from the Angiospermae, — the pines from thee broad- bamboo No. 401) 



ZSS(Timonht^) and 390 (Boerlagioclendron Sayeri) 

 are met with. There are no Calamus at this height, 



a worse curse to the traveller — the mountain 



leafed trees — and see how they compare in number and 



volume. 



The five conifers, viz., 376, 381, 359A, 269 and 377 



are represented by 90 trees, carrying a volume of 15,693 

 cubic feet, which works out at 388 cubic feet of soft- 

 wood per acre, and 46 per cent, of the total volume, 

 and 40 per cent, of the total stocking. In short, the 

 forest is nearly half a pine forest, along the spur that 

 runs from Laruni to Mt. Obree. Were the slopes more 

 continuously steep, and the two prominent Hattish 

 stretches out of the survey, then the coniferous per- 

 centage would have been higher still. At any rate it 

 is high enough, and the main species is sufficiently 

 striking to call it a pine fore<t. The somewhat heavy 

 admixture of oak, and the character these trees give to 

 the general view, leads me to qualify the title and call 



itself, and with it 

 mountain pandanus. Of the palms, 



begins to show 



often grows tin 



only one — the pretty low one which makes no aerial 



shoots- 



is common, but no tall palms occur. No. 407 



it a pine and oak forest. 

 These forests 



■iy 



ests, and a description of them is much easier. In the 



(Cyrlandra sp.) is a small tree or big shrub with a 

 yellow flower. Here and there the narrow leafed Frey- 

 cinetia occurs. Xo. 410 — F. angu.stissima — has a wide 

 range in altitude. 



The leaves of all species, with one or two notable 

 exceptions, are small and rather coriaceous, rarely 

 compound and usually entire. There has really been 

 a progressive diminution in the size of leaves, and 'J 

 decrease in the number of compound leaf species since 

 rising to the upper limits of the foothills. The de- 

 crease is not, however, noticeable to the eye until one 

 enters the mid-mountain belt proper, and it is a ques- 

 tion of measurement of haves to tell that they are 



smaller at tin 1 upper limits of tin* foothill forests than 

 they are at, say, 2,000 feet. The smallness of the 



