Feb., 1942 
The Queensland Naturalist 
9 
fdipendula, Poa australis (on the higher slopes), Eragrostis 
leptostachya and E. Brownii (love grasses; usually in 
more open places), Cymbopogon refractus (barb-wire 
grass), Cenchrus australis (burr grass), Setaria pallide- 
fusca, Oplismenus imbecillis (scrambling under the taller 
grasses), and less commonly there occur other species such 
as Paspalidium distans on the slopes of Mt. Chinghee, 
Artliraxon hispidus near the foot of the same mountain, 
and Aristida ramosa on one of its spurs. Other fairly 
common grass-like plants are Cyperus fulvus, C. gracilis, 
C. enervis, and Car ex breviculmis. Legumes are quite 
prominent, and apart from the woody ones mentioned 
above ( Swainsonia , Lonchocarpus), there occur the erect 
Lespedeza sericea , the trailing Desmodium rhytidophyllum 
and Zornia diphylla and the twining Hardenbergia 
bimaculata (wild sarsaparilla; more commonly known as 
H. monophylla) , Glycine tabacina, G. clandestine, and 
Vigna vexillata. Other herbaceous plants of greater or 
lesser frequency are (a) rosette plants — Ranunculus lap- 
paceus (buttercup), Hypochaeris radicata (dandelion) 
and Apium leptophyllum (wild parsley) ; (b) the pros- 
trate or creeping Hydrocotyle hirta and Veronica plebeia, 
the ascending Verbena venosa (wild verbena, introduced), 
and (c) the more or less erect Senecio lautus, Siegesbeckia 
orientalis (farmer’s flea, chiefly near ecotones), Gnap- 
halium luteoalbum, Centranthera liispida , Wahlenbergia 
multicaulis (bluebell), Acliantum aethiopicum (maiden- 
hair fern) and Botrychium australe. 
Where Open Forest and Closed Forest meet there is 
a narrow intermediate zone or ecotone, where under trees 
of the open, forest usually with Tristania conferta (scrub 
box) associated there occur smaller trees and shrubs, some 
of which are characteristic of the Closed Forest, while 
others are more or less restricted to such zones. The 
species are quite numerous, and among those in an ecotone 
on Mt. Chinghee* are Melia dubia (white cedar), Crypto- 
carya triphnervis, Mallotus discolor and Arytera divaricata 
(trees) ; Hibiscus heterophyllus, Abutilon acutatum, 
Cassia retusa, Pavetta indica, Psychotria claphnoides, 
Eilat ostachys xylocarpa, Alchornea aquifolium (shrubs, 
mostly tall) ; Smilax australis, Cudrania javanensis (wait- 
*Mt. Chinghee on the Lands maps; locally the mountain is 
known as "Bung-Bung", which is said to be an aboriginal word 
meaning "place of the dead" or "burial ground". 
