110 
The Queensland Naturalist 
August, 1938 
of the much smaller Car ex neurochlamys , and often a close 
growth of the creeping grass, Ottochloa gracillima. Where 
seepages enter the forest the handsome Panicum melanan- 
thum may be found. 
On slightly higher and better drained ground the 
trees are more distant and not so tall or straight, and here 
we find a community reminiscent of some of the more 
northern Melaleuca forests. Grasses and sedges form the 
chief ground cover, which is fairly close and relatively 
low, the individuals (chiefly perennials) being rarely 
more than 3 feet high, and often much lower. Eremochloa 
sp. is the dominant grass, with Digit aria orbata , Paw, cum 
sp., the northern Ischaemum fragile and Fimbristylis 
furva , the widely-spread F. nutans and a characteristic 
broad-leaved form of F. dichotoma , and others. 
Quite a large area is occupied by Wallum flats (see 
fig. 1), often with patches of Banksia serratifolia (wal- 
lum), or B. integrifolia.. The soil is a rather loose, deep 
sand, and the vegetation heath-like in nature. Trees are 
typically absent, while in the wetter places bog-moss 
( Sphagnum sp.) sometimes occurs. X author rhoea minor 
(grass-tree), though stemless, is one of the most striking 
plants by reason of its dense tufts of long, hard and very 
narrow leaves, and its stout flowering or fruiting scape 
about 2^ feet high. The other dominant plants are chiefly 
small shrubs and undershrubs with small hard narrow' 
leaves, and belong particularly to the families Legu- 
minosae, Myrtaceae, Rutaceae, Epacridaceae, and Protea- 
ceae, while Restiaceae, Cyperaceae, and Orchidaceae 
(ground orchids) are usually abundant. The flats here 
do not differ appreciably from those further to the south, 
except that the shrubs are unusually low, often scarcely 18 
inches high. How much of this dwarfing is due to fire 
and how much to -wind is difficult to say. Among the 
plants on these flats at Coolum are Gompholobium virga- 
tum, Dillwynia floribunda , Baeckia crenulata , Lcptosper- 
mum parvifolium , Boronia le difolia, B. fold folia, Erioste- 
mon scaber , Epacris pulchella, Sprengelia Ponceletia, 
Leucopogon virgatus , Conospermum taxi folium , Strang ea 
linearis, Petrophila Shirley ae, Banksia integrifolia var. 
palud osa, Pimelea linifolia (shrubby plants) ; Schoenus 
brevifolius , S. ericetorum var. ornithopodioides, Cladium 
Muelleri, Costularia paludosa, Caustis recurvata, Scleria 
rugosa , S. laxa, and a form allied thereto, and Fimbri- 
stylis pauciflora (Cyperaceae). The last-mentioned, a 
species little known in Australia, is here very abundant, 
particularly along the tracks. The Restiaceae include, 
among others, llypolaena lateriflora, Leptocarpus tenax, 
