30 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



the afternoon I left the train at Cooran and took up my quarters 

 in a delightful little wayside inn surrounded by ferns. On going 

 up to the house I detected at once the genuine Lancashire 

 dialect and knew that the owner hailed from within ten miles 

 of Manchester. I was accordingly made welcome, and wandered 

 out to do a little collecting before evening came on. I found 

 myself just on the northern border of the palm scrub which ran 

 in a broad belt of about twenty miles width across the country from 

 east to west, inland from the sea coast. The country was fairly 

 hilly with a few isolated peaks standing out clearly. I was just 

 at the base of one of these — Cooran — and to the south lay two 

 more — Cooroora and Pimparan. South from these again the 

 ridges increased in height and then the country fell away into 

 the slightly undulating plains which stretched eastwards towards 

 Bribie Island and southwards to Brisbane. Some remarkable 

 peaks, called the Glass Mountains, mark the southern end of the 

 hilly district. 



So far as animals are concerned, I was much disappointed with 

 this palm scrub, but equally delighted with the richness of the 

 vegetation. 



Commencing first near to Cooran, I followed back the line 

 and " log-rolled," finding a few worms and four land planarians 

 (Rhynchodemus obscurus), a small dark-coloured form, and Geoplana 

 ccerulea and variegata, together with specimens of a very small 

 new white species, to which Dr. Dendy has given the name of 

 G. minor. After long searching I came across Peripatus leuckartii, 

 very dark purple in colour and evidently similar to the typical 

 form and without the curious diamond-shaped markings charac- 

 teristic of the Victorian form. Though searching hard, I only 

 found nine specimens altogether and all these close to Cooran. 

 Most of my time was spent in this scrub at different parts and 

 usually in company with George Martin, the son of my Lancashire 

 friends, who helped me very considerably in collecting. The 

 scrub was very thick with vines and prickly lawyers and barristers 

 and supplejack, making progress tedious, and there were compara- 

 tively few logs on the ground. What delighted me most were the 

 ferns. The trunks of the pines and gums were olten covered over 

 with them and with orchids. High up were enormous clumps of 

 the Bird-nest Fern (Asplenium nidus j, and larger ones of the Stag- 

 horn ( Acrostichnm alcicorne). Some of the latter measured fully 

 12 feet through, and from them hung down lovely pendant fronds 

 of smaller ferns, especially of Polypodium tenellum, which is 

 locally known as the Feather Fern. On the ground grew various 

 species of Davallia, Adiantum, Pteris, Doodia, Aspidium, Poly- 

 podium, &c. Perhaps the most beautiful of all were the large 

 and delicate fronds of Adiantum formosum. There were appar- 

 ently three forms of palms — species of Ptychosperma, Livistona, 



