110 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



curiously cut leaves, was very common on the edge of this scrub. 

 Many small ferns grew on the ground, and the moist banks of 

 a small creek were covered with Selaginelia flahellalu., with its 

 pretty fan-shaped fronds. A plant which attracted my attention 

 I at iirst took to be a beautiful evergreen shrub, but on looking 

 through Mr. F. M. Bailey's " Synopsis of the Queensland Flora," 

 I have come to the conclusion that it was Tacca pinnatijida, 

 Forst., which is described as — petioles erect, i to 3 feet; lamina 

 divided into three branches, and these again divided ; the root is 

 yamlike, and contains white fecula, which is used as food in the 

 Pacific Islands. On the other side of this scrub more open 

 country extended for some distance ; this was very flat, poor soil, 

 timbered principally with eucalypts, tea-trees, and pandanus. The 

 trunks of many of these latter were divided into two, three, or 

 more branches. 



Over the river was a fine piece of scrub, which, however, had 

 been partially " scrubbed " — that is, the vines and creepers had 

 been cut, thereby partially opening it up to the sun's rays. How- 

 ever, it was still dark enough to require one to get accustomed 

 to the subdued light before you could do much botanizing. 

 Here there were many kinds of ferns. Adiantuin hispiduhun in 

 places could have been mown with a scythe. The big timber 

 consisted of fig trees of various species, bean, or Moreton Bay 

 Chestnut trees, CastanospHrmun australe, nutmegs, Johnston 

 River Hardwoods, Backhousia Bancroflii, &c. Some of the 

 trees, especially figs, had immense buttressed stems, which are 

 very curious ; the buttresses are only a few inches thick, and 

 stand out several feet from the trunk, making such recesses that 

 a person in one could be completely hidden from another in the 

 next. One of the fig trees bears clusters of small fruit on the 

 main trunk low down, while others bear on the larger branches. 

 Some immense collections of dead leaves and earth were the 

 egg-mounds of the Scrub Hen or Megapode, Me/japodhcs tumulus, 

 which, curiously enough, though a smaller bird, forms a larger 

 mound than the Tallegalla, or Scrub Turkey. The birds are very 

 shy and take a good deal of caution to get a sight of them. Casso- 

 waries are equally shy, but their marks were sometimes noticed. 

 Several large logs of cedar trees, Cedrela Australis, still remained 

 to show that the timber-getter had been here years before. An 

 undergrowth on the edges of the scrub, consisting of native 

 ginger, Alpinia ccuridea^ native bananas, Miisa Banksii, native 

 taro, Colocasia ayitiquorum, gave variety to the foliage, and every- 

 where young plants of the stinging-tree were springing up. A 

 peculiarity of the scrub is that most of the trees have their roots 

 near the surface, so that one is continually tripping over them. 

 Numbers of young Lawyer Palms only a few inches high, and of 

 another apparently stemless palm, were growing here. Pods of the 



