CORALS FROM THE AUSTRALIAN BARRIER REEF, NORTH QUEENSLAND 



Ages of time and the lives of myriads of coral polyps have gone to make up countless 

 forms like these in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, the largest coral 

 formation in the world, 1,200 miles in length. The explorer Captain James Cook almost lost 

 his ship on the reef in 1870; but today, when the openings through it are known and charted; 

 as well as the channel which it protects, the barrier is regarded as a boon to coasting vessels. 



told that all the maples, oaks, chestnuts, 

 elms, birches, and cedars, and even apples 

 and cherries, were but species of the 

 genus hickory. 



The Australian is likewise embarassed 

 by these prolific variations of eucalyptus. 

 The trees in general are "gums" — white 

 gums, red gums, blue gums, spotted gums, 

 cabbage gums — or ironbark, stringy bark, 

 woolly bark, smooth bark, and when dis- 

 tinctions are necessary we get such com- 

 binations as narrow-leaved-red-ironbark, 

 or broad-leaved-yellow-stringy-bark. 



LEAVES THAT GROW VERTICALLY INSTEAD 

 OE HORIZONTALLY 



Where conditions are favorable, the 

 eucalypts form forests of straight, slen- 

 der trees ; where soil is. poor, they are 

 wide-spaced and branch like the Cali- 

 fornia oaks ; on sand plains they develop 

 an enormous root, from which spring a 

 number of thin round stems leading- to a 



canopy of scattering leaves ; and even 

 where soil and rain are practically absent 

 the genus is represented. 



Eucalypts are evergreens, which shed 

 their bark, but not their leaves ; but they 

 are not shade trees. The leaves are 

 placed in inclined rather than in hori- 

 zontal positions, and the passage of light 

 is but little obstructed. For this reason, 

 smaller trees and bushes and grass grow 

 underneath, and the woods in places as- 

 sume the appearance of a jungle from 

 which arise the towering shafts of trees. 

 It is interesting to note that primitive 

 types of eucalyptus, as well as the young 

 of more modern types, have horizontal 

 leaves, pointing to a time in the geologic 

 past when the climate was more congenial 

 and no precautions to conserve moisture 

 need be taken. 



The eucalypts include some of the 

 tallest trees in the world. The Victorian 

 Forests Department records trees which 



491 



