plants live. This is proved by the ability of 
this whole association of plants to survive 
a bush fire every few years, as shown by the 
wonderful regeneration after the most severe 
conflagration. 
Each species has its own means of survival. 
There are four main methods by which this 
is brought about. The first is by protective 
devices such as the thick, rough outer bark 
of the stringy bark trees; the second is by 
thick root-stocks as with the tea-trees; the 
third is by bulbs as with the orchids, and the 
fourth is by seeds, e.g., the heath. Thus 
every plant in the association has one or 
more methods by which it can survive bush 
fires; for the first three classes can be re- 
generated also by seed. It is a notable fact 
that the plants, which are protected by root 
stocks, produce fewer seedlings than those 
which are completely destroyed. The follow- 
ing table is the result of a count made on the 
ridge between Gandy's Gully and Horsnell s 
Gully two years after a fire. 
PROPORTION OF SEEDLINGS TO 
OLD PLANTS 
Old 
Seedlings plants 
Root 
stock 
Fpacris impressa 
Miriads 
0 
0 
Daviesia corymbosa 
Miriads 
0 
0 
Tetratheca pilosa 
10 
1 
Small 
Grevillea lavandulacea 
4 
1 
Small 
Pultenaea daphnoides - 
2 
1 
Large 
Hakea rostrata - 
1 
1 
Large 
PRESERVING THE ECOLOGICAL 
CONDITIONS 
What then are the practical conclusions 
from these facts in regard to the preserva- 
tion of the native flora in the Mt. Lofty Range 
and other similar ecological associations. 
First and foremost that since each species 
has developed its present characteristics 
through its present environment, the main 
essential for their preservation is to maintain 
the same conditions in the future, including 
the periodical bushfire. 
THE ECOLOGICAL CLIMAX 
But there is another reason for this treat- 
ment. For ecological purposes the vegeta- 
tion in this particular association of plants 
is divided into three parts. First there are 
the trees overhead, second the shrubs and 
third the grasses and rushes and bulbous 
plants. When this whole vegetative associa- 
tion reaches its climax we have the trees 
above and below a dense mass of shrubs 
three to four feet high with very few her- 
bacious plants or seedlings. 
THE SURVIVAL OF THE 
HERBACIOUS PLANTS 
If this condition were allowed to continue, 
it seems highly probable that the small under 
plants, including the orchids, and the lilia- 
ceous and many of the compsitous plants 
would be exterminated. But after the cleans- 
ing fire has passed through all these lowly 
plants spring up and flower, and provide 
another store of seed for the future to lie 
dormant until the next fire awakes them into 
life again. This is seen by the wonderful 
crop of these basal plants after the fire in the 
locality mentioned above with the orchid 
Diuris longifolia. for instance, up to sixty 
to the square yard, and twenty seedlings to 
the square foot. There are some orchids 
which flower only after a bushfire. 
A PRACTICAL SCHEME 
The best practical plan then for managing 
these areas appears to be to deliberately burn 
off the scrub every few years with proper 
precautions against it spreading to settled 
areas. If this were done early, when mere 
is no chance of the fire getting out of control, 
the fire hazard, which causes so much anxiety 
and fear, would be removed. And further, 
it would not produce such a clean burn, so 
that some rubbish would be left on the 
surface to prevent erosion. This appears to 
be the method used by the aborigines, for a 
forest fire in mid-summer would have been 
much too dangerous to themselves. 
INTRODUCED WEEDS 
It has been said that burning off the scrub 
gives a chance for introduced plants to be- 
come established and kill out the native ones. 
This happens in the sclerophyll forest only 
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