8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND. 



several large and successful plantations have been established 

 there. Further on, Javararie— nearly 50 miles by road from 

 Port Moresby — is one of the oldest rubber plantations and 

 produces some of the finest rubber in the Territory ; but the 

 lack of decent road communication with the seaport militates 

 greatly against its financial success. Botanically, round 

 Javararie the country is particularly rich and tropical in 

 character, and a large numb3r of plants was here gathered. 



On Yule Island and on the mainland opposite the vegeta- 

 tion is somewhat similar to that about Port Moresby. In 

 the ranges about Mafulu (about 4,000 feet) the vegetation is 

 extremely rich and varied, consisting almost entirely of heavy 

 rain-forest. Among trees the ordinary Malayan types pre- 

 dominate ; ferns, lycopods, begonias, palms, bamboos, and 

 other typical tropical forms are abundant. The occurrence of 

 Grevillea is a connecting link with the flora of Australia, Avhile 

 Quercus, Castanopsis, and Begonia are Asiatic types not as yet 

 found in Australia. 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOTANICAL WORK IN 

 PAPUA. 



There has been considerably less botanical work accom- 

 plished on the territory of Papua or British New Guinea than 

 in either the Dutch or late German territories. In his intro- 

 ductory notes to the Botany of the Wollaston Expedition, 

 Dutch New Guinea (in Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. ix, Bot. 2nd 

 series), Mr. H. N. Ridley stated : " The flora of British New 

 Guinea has been more neglected than that of Dutch and 

 German New Guinea ; except for Forbes's collections on the 

 Sogeri Mountains, which have not yet been fully worked out, 

 and a small lot obtained by MacGregor and Guilianetti, no 

 collecting of importance has been done there." 



In 1875 Wm. Macleay (afterwards Sir. Wm. Macleay) 

 conducted an expedition to the islands of Torres Strait and to 

 New Guinea. J. Reedy accompanied the expedition as an 

 horticultural emissary of Sir William Macarthur. The speci- 

 mens he collected formed the material for the first part of 

 Mueller's " Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants." 



In 1875 the Rev. Dr. McFarlane, in search of suitable 

 places to establish mission stations, made the first voyage up 

 the Baxter and Fly Rivers. He collected a number of plants, 

 which were described by Baron Ferdinand von Mueller in his 

 " Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants," vol. i, pts. 2 and 3. 



