EEVEEEXDO CAROLO K.VLCIIEREXXER DEFIXITr. 565 



Scleroderma pUeolatum^ Kalehbrenncr. 



Peridio globoso opaco umbriuo subtus concavo pracditum 

 stipite tenui, subaequali vix in pileum dilatato, basi coma radi- 

 culorum acuto, massa sporifera nigra. 



Illawarra, W. Kirton. 



Peridiuin nucis avellanse mai]fmtiidiiie. 



Botanical Notes ox Queensland. 



Br the Eev. J. E. Texisox-Woods, F.a.S., F.L.S., &c. 



No. Y. — The Forests or Scrubs. 



The general impression about Australia is that its interior is 

 o£ a desert character and generally more or less denuded of trees. 

 "Whether this is true of any desert region may be questioned. 

 The most arid regrions of the world have trees or shrubs of some 

 kind. Even the shifting sands of the jSTefood of Arabia or the 

 African Sahara have their stunted vegetation, and these regions 

 are continually interrupted with finely timbered plains. The 

 stony deserts of Central Australia are rare Jind exceptional. On 

 these nothing is to be seen but a solitary clump of Poli/gomim 

 jimceum or of Mulga (^Acacia aneura) . The vast plains of the 

 interior are however covered with trees, and when these grow in 

 thiciiets they go by the colonial name of " scrubs." The term is 

 of very varied application. Just as the trees in different localities 

 are of different kinds and different heights, so are the scrubs. 

 There is the greatest possible diversity between what is called a 

 "scrub" in New South Wales, in Victoria, and in Queensland. 

 The trees are different and the whole aspect is different. To 

 describe the distinctive features of each would be a kind of 

 descriptive botany for each colony. A scrub is usually a dense 

 thicket of the trees which happen to be most common in the 

 locality. The term forest would best suit some of these masses 

 LI 



