Forty-six 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST 
March, 1953 
species, viz. breeding and pollina- 
tion habits, hybrid status and 
chromosome numbers; ecological 
data, including Raunkaiers Life 
Forms (with an explanatory note) 
are also very helpful. Much of 
this type of information is so far 
lacking for the Australian flora. 
Briefly, the book is an inspiring 
model setting quite a new style to 
those compiling floras of similar 
scope. 
In actual use, there are ade- 
quate keys to families, genera and 
species; the key to the families is 
artificial, producing strange bed- 
fellows from the point of view of 
a natural classification, but this is 
remedied by the “Synopsis of Clas- 
sification” showing not Fngler’s 
sequence of families, to which 
Black’s “Flora of South Australia” 
has accustomed us, but one modi- ! 
fied from Bentham and Hooker to 
fit in with present day thought. 
Species difficult to distinguish are 
grouped as “aggregate species” for 
simplicity ,and to read the sec- 
tions on Hieracium and Rubus 
reveals the approach to difficult 
genera; italics are freely used to 
emphasise salient features; and 
there are a short bibliography, a 
glossary and an index of scientific 
and common names. 
The value of the book to Aust- 
ralians, then, is partly in the 
treatment of the limited number 
of genera and species common to 
both countries (many of them 
naturalized here), but chiefly as a 
brilliant exposition of new botani- 
cal fields of knowledge being ap- 
plied in a flora. 
C. M. Eardley. 
CHECK LIST OF NORTH 
QUEENSLAND ORCHIDS 
The North Queensland Club, 
just over 20 years ago, commenced 
from small beginnings. A few, but 
very enthusiastic naturalists formed 
this club so that the natural his- 
tory of the district coidd be ex- 
amined, discussed, and, where 
necessary, recorded. A programme 
of work to carry out these aims was 
drawn up, and over the years the 
achievements have been many. A 
number of us will recall the dupli- 
cated lists of plant names which 
were issued from time to time, to- 
gether with their localities, names 
of collectors, flowering dates, etc. 
An herbarium was established and 
also other natural history collec- 
tions made. 
This reviewer has always held 
the opinion that if a club proposes 
to issue or publish anything, it 
should do so right away and not 
wait “until there is enough money 
to produce something worthwhile.” 
While it is always pleasant to pub- 
lish a nicely finished journal or 
list, it should not be forgotten that 
it is the results contained therein 
which are of greater importance. 
The early “North Queensland 
Naturalist” — the club journal — 
were small unpretentious bulletins, 
but the records they contained were 
sound and of considerable use. 
Finally, the club was able to print 
regularly the Naturalist, but the 
duplicated lists of plants were still 
issued; records of which today are 
extremely useful to the ecologist, 
plant geographer and systematic 
botanist. 
But other publications were en- 
visaged and at last it was possible 
to commence the issuing of check 
lists, giving in co-ordinated form 
