September 1939 The Queensland Naturalist o 5 
In the east clearing has not gone on to the same extent 
and it is possible to guess at the composition of the original 
vegetation with a fair degree of certainty. Fires have, 
however, affected the grass vegetation considerably. 
Lantana ( Lantana Camara) is fairly common in the 
district and its presence causes much local modification of 
the ground vegetation. 
Mixed with the grasses throughout the area are several 
small perennial herbs and undershrubs. Characteristic of 
the Greenstones particularly is Pimelea lint folia,. Several 
leguminous trailers and twiners occur such as Glycine 
clandestina , G. tabacina , Desmodium various , and where 
extensive clearing has not taken place, Hardenbergia mono- 
phylla , Desmodium rhytidophyllum and Flemingia parvi- 
flora occur. 
THE GRASSES. 
Over 100 species of grasses have been recorded for the 
district. As might be expected many of these are only 
occasionally met with, though a considerable majority are 
comparatively common. It is impossible to deal with all 
these in the present paper, and while the most outstanding 
species are dealt with pretty fully, many have had to be 
arbitrarily omitted. A few of the rarer species which ex- 
hibit certain points of interest will, however, be considered. 
It is proposed to treat the grasses in the light of the 
present pseudo-climax conditions. From this standpoint 
it is much simpler to follow the effect of human interference 
and at the same time it makes it possible to treat the 
economical side of the problem more directly. 
The first effect of clearing is the appearance of 
Digitaria didactyla (Blue Couch), which on completely 
cleared land, except in very damp situations, forms an 
almost complete cover up to an inch or more in thickness. 
In the damper stations it is gradually replaced by 
Paspalum dilatatum. Towards the tops of the ridges in the 
Bunya Phyllites area, Digitaria is to a large extent replaced 
by Eremochloa bimacidata. On gravelly places near the 
river, and to a lesser extent on more or less stony places 
near the tops of the ridges, Cynodon dactylon (Indian 
Couch) is the dominant species, but as humus accumu- 
lates, it tends to be replaced by the Digitaria. 
Both Blue Couch and Indian Couch are low creeping 
grasses with a considerable amount of leaf, but they never 
form very thick carpets. Both are good fodder grasses, 
but the Cynodon is much the better of the two. 
Associated with the Digitaria as co-dominant is 
