756 



SOME NOTES ON THE FERNS OF NORTH 

 QUEENSLAND. 



By the Rev. W. Walter Watts. 



(Plates Ixxxvi.-lxxxix.) 



In the winter of 1913 (July- August), I spent a month in the 

 Cairns district in search of Ferns and Mosses. I collected in the 

 rich scrub-lands between Bartle Frere and the Russell River, 

 more especially in the neighbourhood of Josephine Creek: around 

 Babinda also, and up Frenchman's Creek to beyond the Second 

 Falls. Babinda and Frenchman's Creek lie at the base of 

 Bellenden Ker, along the coastal railway. Following, later, the 

 main line, i visited Stoney Creek, Kuranda, Atherton, Malanda, 

 Yuno-aburra, Lake Barrine, and, last and best of all, Ravenshoe 

 and the Tully Falls. These Notes deal with the Ferns collected 

 during this trip. 



It was a great pleasure to make the acquaintance of species 

 after species that belong to the Malayan flora, and are not found 

 even in Southern Queensland. But therein lay the difficulty of 

 determination. Mr. F. M. Bailey, the veteran Government 

 Botanist of Queensland, had kindly supplied me with a number 

 of species, and others were available in the National Herbarium, 

 Sydney, collected mainly by Mr. R. F. Waller, in the Herberton 

 district, in 1908; but the want of access to types has been greatly 

 felt. Valued assistance has been received from Dr. K. Domin's 

 painstaking work on the Ferns of Australia, published in the 

 " Bibliotheca Botanica," under the title " Beitrage zur Flora und 

 Pflanzengeographie Australiens, i.Lieferung," herein referred to 

 as "Prodr." (Prodromus), the secondary title of the first volume 

 of the Beitrage. This work arrived in Australia just about the 

 time that I began my trip, and I had no opportunity of studying 

 it until after my return. This I regretted exceedingly, for Dr. 

 Domin had spent considerable time in North Queensland, and 

 his work raises problems that escaped my notice while in the 



