80 BOTANICAL NOTES ON QUEENSLAND, 



town. It is principally formed of the tea- tree and stunted trees 

 of Ficiis aspera. 



Near the ford on the north bank are some fine specimens of 

 Hibiscus sphndens a species not often met with out of the tropics 

 though it appears occasionally in river scrubs on the east side of 

 the range as far south as the Hastings Eiver. It is a tall shrub 

 about 25 feet high, with flowers of a beautiful rose colour. The 

 anthers are arranged in a pyramidal form of dark crimson. There 

 are five deep red round stigmas which produce a splendid effect. 

 Mr. Erazer the botanist who introduced it into England says of 

 it, " I consider this the king of all known Australian plants. I 

 have seen it 22| feet high. The flowers measured nine inches 

 across and were of a most delicate colour, literally covering the 

 whole plant wdth pink and crimson." How strange it is that we 

 scarcely ever meet with this species in private cultivation in 

 Australia. 



Near this Hihis-cus there is rather a close growth of that 

 singular Euphorbiaceous plant FhyllantJms Ferdinandi, a species 

 which extends from Carpentaria to Port Jackson. It grows to a 

 small tree and in flowering time the blossoms though small have 

 a pretty effect. This is in the neighbourhood of where the forest 

 has been cleared and its place is being rapidly filled up by a dense 

 growth of Castanospermum australe, 3Iacaranga tanarius, and 

 Cudrania javanensis, all of which tend to form a dense thicket. 

 Two introduced plants are also extremely common and thick. 

 They are Asclepias curassavica, and Taqetes ffJcmduJifera. The 

 latter grows here to a height which I have never seen attained 

 anywhere else. There are large thick succulent plants to be 

 found ten feet in height. The species is of South American 

 origin, thoiigh generally called the African Marigold. It is 

 spread as a weed also in New South Wales along the Hunter 

 and Nepean Rivers. 



A few sections of cleared ground on the west side of the north 

 township are now covered with a large Solamim which I supposed 



