May, 1946 The Queensland Naturalist 
17 
gale) and a Dasyurus. Rats were common, but strangely 
leeches and mosquitoes were practically absent. 
The next camp was established at (’bout 1,200 feet and 
conifers became common trees of the forest. Parrakeets 
Hew overhead on their homeward journey from the Meer- 
vlakte. They do not come much higher than this. Lam 
mentioned that nowhere had he seen such a wealth of ferns 
as here. New Guinea has probably the richest fern flora 
in the world, though many of the lowland rain-forests 
are practically fernless. 
At about 8,210 feet the mountain easuarina appears 
in great abundance and from this height upward is prac- 
tically the only tree found in addition to the conifers. In 
the undergrowth a half-climbing bamboo is very common. 
The forest limit is fixed at about 8,510 feel though trees 
may extend up to 9,000 feet. Between this and the highest 
point on Mt. Boorman, about 10,710 feet, is a plateau on 
which a camp was established and much collecting done. 
This plateau is characterised by three outstanding types 
cf vegetation, naturally showing many transitions: 
A. The rocky terrain. 
B. The fern and shrub scrubs. 
C. The marshes. 
The first is the largest, with convex folds and gently 
sloping areas where the surface is covered with boulders 
of all sizes. These are all formed from the basic rock for- 
mation marked by sink holes interspersed with abrupt 
ridges and irregular protrnberant rocks and by caverns and 
underground streams. As weathering proceeds rows of 
furrows are frequently formed separated by narrow and 
often very sharp edges. The rock formation consists of 
magnesium olivine and a colourless mineral antigorite, and 
antigorite— serpi ntine, permeated everywhere with magnetic 
iron— ore which by its action on the compass had adready 
tricked earlier explorer-surveyors. In the humus collected 
between the boulders a very dwarf flora of small crowded 
or creeping, shrubs and a few herbs take root. Several 
species of Styphrtin. a group of plants having its greatest 
development in Australia, were much in evidence. In the 
more protected areas shrubs may attain a height of six 
feet or more, including species of ftytygium (Eugenio to 
Australian botanists), Vaceinium, Driniys and Quint inio. 
A pitcher-plant (Nepenthes Viellardii) only previously 
known from New Caledonia was collected here. The ant- 
plants (. Myrmecodia ) are typically epiphytes, hut here 
