22 Contributions to the Queensland Flora. 
Order DIOSCORIDEZ. 
DIOSCOREA, Linn. 
. alata, Linn,, Spec. Plant. (1753), p. 1003. A stout glabrous 
duaber: stems variously angled or winged. Leaves orbicular to hastate- 
culate, axillary. Female flowers in stiff spikes of 3-9 in. in length. 
Capsule (not seen ripe in the Queensland specimens) but described* as 
being “‘ broader than long, 1-1} in. diameter, very broadly obcordate, 
coriaceous ; seeds orbicular, broadly winged all round.” 
Hab. : Near Innisfail (Johnstone River), H. G. Ladbrook. 
Mr. I. H. Burkill, Director of Botanic Gardens, Singapore, to whom 
‘I am indebted for the identification, writes : ‘‘ The Dioscorea is D. alata. 
Though this species is recorded as wild in the interior behind Darwin, 
I believe that it has not been obtained previously in Queensland.” 
The species is one that is generally cultivated throughout the 
tropics. There are many forms of it under cultivation, and a compre- 
hensive account of the various races will be found in an article by Mr. 
Burkill in the ** Gardens’ Bulletin, Straits Settlements,” vol. i. (1917), 
pp. 371-396. 
Order FILICES. 
GLEICHENIA, Sm. 
C. levigata, Hook., Spec. Fil.,i., 10; Domin. Prod. Farnfl. Queens., 
205; G. flagellaris, F. M. Bailey, Queens. Flora, vi., 1938; Lithogr. 
Ferns Queens., tab. 18; Maid. and Betche, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 
'xxxiv. (1909), 366 (non Spr.); Shirley, Proc. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sc., 
xiii. (1912), 271 
Hab.: .Macpherson Range, Schneider an Tryon; Nerang River, H. 
Schneider ; Upper Tallebudgera, Young and Whi 
The inclusion of this fern in Bailey’s “‘ Queensland Flora ”’ rested 
on sterile specimens collected on Macpherson Range by Messrs. Schneider 
and Tryon. When collecting recently on the slopes of the Macpherson 
Range at the head of Tallebudgera Creek with Mr. Young, I secured a 
large series of fertile fronds ; Mr. Schneider’s specimens are also spore- 
bearing, and Dr. Shirley in “ The Flora of the Basaltic Tablelands of 
South-east Queensland,”’ l.c., has recorded it as ‘‘ the commonest fern 
on Springbrook but rarely seen on the other tablelands.” It is strange 
that such a common New Guinea and Malayan fern has not as yet been 
collected in tropical Queensland. 
Tt is now generally conceded that Sprengl’s @. flagellaris is distinct 
from though closely allied to the common Malayan, New Guinea, and 
Australian G. levigata. 
* Hooker, Fl. Brit. India, vi., 296. 
