29S THE JOURNAL OF EOT ANT 



principally of the very general endemic tree-fern Alsopliila Beleccce, 

 with entire pinnules, a 3facrozamia, and the peculiar Bowenia 

 spectabiUs in very young examples, only showing simple branches 

 like deltoid fronds in appearance. A graceful little palm, Bacularia 

 •minor, about 3 metres high — with stems as thick as a walking-stick, 

 the red fruit crowded at the apex of flexible peduncles which radiate 

 beyond the leaves, — was a very common representative of an Indo- 

 Malavan and Papuan genus. Mack inlay a macrosciadea, a slight 

 undershrub, 2-8 m. high, with light green foliage and flowers and 

 white fruit, was also common — a Papuan species which here reaches 

 the limit of its distribution, recalling the closely allied Anomopanax 

 arfakensis, equally abundant in the Arfak Mts. of N.W. New Guinea, 

 in habit and colouring, the latter, however, with green fruit. 



Always rising, we crossed two fine torrents with the widel}'' spread 

 Angiopteris evecta on their banks, also at the limit of its distri- 

 bution. The native name means Water-fern, as it only grows in 

 N. Queensland along water-courses *. On a rock overhanging the 

 second stream, at about 1000', the very pretty Boea liygi^oscopica— 

 representing the last outlier of a family widely spread in India, 

 Malaya, China, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands — formed an 

 unexpected patch of bright purple colour. 



Behind this stream the ground, alwa^'-s exposed and sterile in 

 character, rose much more steeply, with the JMacrozamia, Bacularia 

 and Mackinlaj/a still conspicuous amongst the scanty undergrowth. 

 Swinging sharply to the left we passed up some slopes of loose dry 

 soil and leaves, open enough a afford a view over the Mulgrave River 

 valley and the hills bordering to the south ; then turning sharplj^ to 

 the right we stepped on to a long ridge plateau about 2000', running 

 apparently east to west and quite different in the character of its 

 vegetation. 



A most delicious scent made me hunt round till I found a group 

 of Bantlia disperma, a bush}^ shrub about 3-4 ra. high, with dark 

 green leaves, bearing very few of the delicate long, tubular, white 

 flowers, of which the extreme edges of the corolla lobes are very 

 densely crisped — an unusual feature in the genus, Mr. Moore tells 

 me. Slender trees of Brackenridgea australiana, with ascending 

 branches covered with the striking fruit, consisting of largish blue- 

 black seeds borne on red enlarged calyx-leaves ; Garcinia Gibbsice, 

 with green flowers turning brown later, and the white-flowered Si/?n- 

 plocos Thwaitesii were the dominant substaging species in flower 

 under the slender forest trees. 



On this long ridge Alsophila Rebeccce persisted, but the smaller 

 Bacularia Balmeriana from this point replaces B. minor, which it 

 resembles in appearance, the leaves being less pinnate and more 

 approaching the youth form. 



The comparatively^ level surface of the plateau ridge was covered 

 with broken granite over which small mosses and epiphytic ferns 

 spread luxuriantly, the handsome Hymenophyllum Baileyanum being 



* R. H. Gambage, "Native Flora of Tropical Queensland ' in Journ. Roy. 

 Soc. N.S. Wales, xlix. (191.5) ;J90. 



