30 
The Queensland Naturalist 
May, 1942 
radiating in every direction, and often gummy. They are 
sometimes called “porcupine grass,” a much better name. 
The remaining hot deserts are the “Salt Deserts,” so 
called because the soil is highly impregnated with salts, 
or therei may be a layer of salts on the surface. Very few 
plants can withstand the poisonous reaction of such a high 
concentration of salts, and the vegetation of such deserts 
is both scanty and lacking in variety. Commercial use 
of the salt-deposits, however, has been made in some places, 
such as Chile. Salt deserts are but poorly known in Aus- 
tralia, but at least small areas occur in the neighbourhood 
of Lake Eyre and elsewhere. 
For the purposes of this address, I shall not attempt 
to give a systematic division of the Cold Deserts, but 
variety occurs. The Tundra is probably the best known 
area of Cold Desert, occupying a large part of Northern 
Europe, Northern Asia, and Northern Canada and Alaska. 
Growth takes place after the thaw, and apart from the 
numerous showy flowers, there are peculiar tiny creeping 
woody plants which further south are represented by 
closely similar plants growing into trees. Dwarf species 
of willows are among these. Still nearer the poles, the 
chief vegetation is composed of lichens and mosses, parti- 
cularly the “reindeer moss” (really a lichen, Cladonia 
rangif erina ) , upon which the reindeer feeds. The animals 
of these regions naturally differ greatly from those of the 
Hot Deserts, and are mostly fur-bearing creatures. In 
extreme cases, such as on Antarctica generally, and in 
parts of Iceland and Greenland, vegetation is almost 
absent, and animals are few and far between. 
Other Cold Deserts occur on high mountains, the 
Alpine and Mountain deserts. The Alpine deserts 
approach the tundra and arctic deserts in characteristics, 
though some mountain deserts are more like the stony 
deserts. Alpine deserts are common in New Zealand, with 
their “mountain sheep” and other plants, but in Aus- 
tralia are restricted to parts of Tasmania, and the high 
mountains of North-east Victoria and South-east New South 
Wales. 
Deserts are not homogeneous in their aridity. Every 
here and there there occur oases, where water is relatively 
abundant, and where the vegetation may be quite rich. 
