BELLENBEX-KER PLANTS : PKYTO-GEOGRAPHi' 2i)!) 



general. Interspersed amongst the stones Marattia fraxinea with 

 Blechnum Whelani * were the commonest terrestrial ferns, the latter 

 of rosette hahit, the fertile fronds, with much naiTower pinnea?, rising* 

 above the larger sterile ones. This species, the Rev. W. W. Watts 

 informed me at S^alney, had not been re-collected since its original 

 discover}^ by Bailey on this mountain *. The predominance of the 

 few species j^i'esent, combined with the absence of much epiphytic 

 growth on the trunks of the trees, gives a non-tropical character to 

 this undergroAvth, of which the general facies is more suggestive of 

 that of Devon or Cornwall woodlands. 



Proceeding along the ridge, as the altitude increases the stones 

 become larger and more jailed one on toj) of the other, though still 

 sheltering terrestrial ferns, with clumps of the sedge Exocarya 

 scleroides ; the spreading Hymenopliyllum Baileyanum with the Vit- 

 taria pusilla var. ivooroonoorcui, the widely distributed Polypodium 

 Billardieri, and the endemic P. simplicissimum, o\\\j known from 

 N. Queensland, were abundant on the rocks, occasionally associated 

 with Liparis reflexa, a small orchid with cream flowers. At about 

 3000' the undergrowth became denser and the trees smaller ; AJyxia 

 ilicifolia, with white flowers, was general, with A. ruscifolia — of 

 denser habit and much smaller leaves and orange berries — which 

 persisted to the top, as did Symplocos Thivaitesii and the ubiquitous 

 JSlachinlaya, Bacularia and AJsophila JRehecccB. 



After some climbing we emerged on to another shoulder of the 

 mountain at 4000', on the ultimate spur of which the camjDing- 

 ground was reached, where the natives, after putting up the tent, 

 expeditiously erected for themselves one of their neat " gunyas " or 

 shelters, which look like inverted bowls. In this case the ribs were 

 made of " lawyer canes," Calamus australis (Mart.) Becc. — which 

 are about 3-4 cm. thick — arranged lattice- wise, tied with creepers, 

 and then interwoven with palm leaves. Condemned to perpetual 

 roving by the prevailing sterility of a country which in its whole 

 length and breadth does not produce a single plant-food capable of 

 cultivation, these natives, owing to the necessities of the nomadic 

 habit, have never evolved a more stable form of dwelling. Nothing 

 could demonstrate better the effect of environment on the develop- 

 ment of a race than the contrast between the mountain Papuans with 

 their well-built houses and wonderfully stocked gardens on the rich 

 slopes of their native mountains, and these, people, in intelligence 

 certainly not behind the Papuans, driven to a nomadic existence by 

 adverse conditions of habitat. Even in these hills the native Aus- 

 tralian tribes were not helped by the heavy rainfall, as the slopes are 

 too barren to admit of any cultivation, even had the ubiquitous sweet 

 potato of other tropical countries been available. 



Near the camp a group of a very fine Palm, Arania append icu- 

 lata, up to S metres in height — the leaves 3-4 m. long, with silver 

 undersides to the pinnae, showed some specimens just coming into 

 flower, but I could only find S plants, though Dr. Beccari informs 



* F. M. Bailey, ' Flora and Fauna of Bellenden-Ker Range,' Brisbane (1889), 

 p. 77. 



