BY DR. KAKEL DOMIN. 67 



if the bush fires did not protect them against the invasion 

 of scrub. 



There are again very different and distinct types of 

 open forest. In the North must be specially mentioned 

 the Eucalyptus forest with close undergrowth of high grass 

 (as the typical form of the open forest), further with plenty 

 of grass trees {Zanthorrhoea) or Cycads (or sometimes both 

 together), or with plenty of she-oaks, etc. 



Most interesting is the open forest country in the far 

 West, for instance near Cloncurry. We find along the 

 Northern Railway on the Rolling Downs formation every- 

 where open grassy plains, but with the beginning of the 

 Silurian strata they disappear at once and give way to a 

 special type of open forest with plenty of so-called " Spini- 

 fex " {Triodia) in undergrowth. This country is usuallly 

 called " desert country," but it is a true open forest. It 

 is an interesting fact that very far West the open forest 

 has so wide an area ; its character is, of course, according 

 to the soil and climate, very poor. 



A special type of open forest is to be found on the 

 sandy soil in some places near the Main Dividing Range in 

 Northern and! Central Queensland. The undergrowth is 

 not close, and consists, instead of grass, of different shrubs. 

 This type recalls another forest association slightly developed 

 in Queensland (for instance in some places in the rough 

 country between Stanthorpe and Wallangarra), but ex- 

 tending over large areas in New South Wales, where 

 the whole country from Newcastle and Sydney to the 

 Blue Mountains (except the gullies) are the best known 

 localities for this forest with plenty of shrubs and grass 

 in undergrowth. 



In some parts of North Queensland there is on the ranges 

 near the coast another type of open forest, consisting 

 mostly of she-oaks (Casuarina) with tall grass trees between, 

 the grass being less dense than in the true gum forest. 



A quite different type of forest — and perhaps not a 

 true forest — is seen in the different wattle- scrubs, which 

 are spread over areas between the open forest and the Rolling 

 Downs formation, larger than those of any other plant 

 formation in South West Queensland. A wattle called 

 brigalow {Acacia harpophylla) makes large irregular scrubs. 

 In the neighbourhood of Clermont, and in many places 



