56 
The Queensland Naturalist 
October, 1929* 
Eustrephus latifolius. Epiphytes are rare in the Eucalyp- 
tus forest. An orchid — Dendrobium undulatum — common 
along the coast, growing over rocks and trees, ascends 
into this formation, but is more commonly met with in 
the monsoon forest. Dendrobium teretifolium, the pencil 
orchid, is also occasionally seen. Brassaia actinophylla 
(the umbrella tree), usually a small terrestrial tree in the 
monsoon forest or the Eucalyptus forest, was observed in 
one instance, growing in the .hollow of a broken branch 
of Bloodwood (Eucalyptus terminalis), eighteen feet from 
the ground. It had a stem eighteen feet long with twelve 
branches each surrounded by the typical umbrella top of 
leaves — about five to each branch in this case. The roots 
were well developed with an abundance of root hairs, and 
were feeding on the abundance of humus in the pipe. 
There was no sign of attempted parasitism, though the 
the bloodwood branch had healed over and held the um- 
brella tree firmly with its callus. 
The general composition of the Eucalyptus forest is 
not uniform. It is influenced considerably by physio- 
graphical factors, and the same may be said to be true 
of the Malayan forest. The vegetation of open forest of 
the flats may be regarded as a transition from the strand 
to the Eucalyptus formation. It has associated with the 
dominant Eucalypts such strand types as Pandanus, Mela- 
leuca leucadendron (which is also, of course, a swamp 
type), and Homalanthus populifolius. Pandanus and 
Melaleuca disappear on the higher slopes. The composi- 
tion of the forest on the slopes varies with the exposure. 
Slopes facing the north and east are populated almost 
exclusively with dark, rough-barked bloodwoods South- 
ern, western, and south-western slopes have all four 
species of Eucalyptus, and the white trunks of E. termin- 
alis, E. tessellaris, and E. alba give this part of the forest 
a quite distinctive appearance. Albizzia procera does not 
greatly affect the general composition of the forest, but 
its pinnate leaves and beautiful shape make it one of the 
most noticeable trees of the formation. Frequently it is 
attacked by Loranthus longifl orris ; the Eucalypts, though 
often infested by this parasite, being more generally 
attacked by L. pendulus. 
(To be continued.) 
