PHANEROGAMIC FLORA OF QUEENSLAND. 
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a few instances where the character, habit, or stature of plants has 
been found to differ widely in what appears to be the same species 
though gathered in far distant localities. 
II.— CHANGE OF CHARACTER, HABIT, OR STATURE PROBABLY 
DUE TO CLIMATIC INFLUENCES. 
The remarkable difference in character, habit, or stature which 
one meets with in the same species, when found in far distant habitats, 
is worthy of remark. Indeed, so distinct do these plants appear that 
one need not be surprised at botanists having at times given to them 
distinct specific names, and afterwards allowing such names to lapse. 
I, however, think it advisable, if only for convenience’ sake, that all 
forms or varieties, when at all pronounced, shouldbear distinctive names. 
An extraordinary instance of this change of character takes place in 
Strychnos psilosperma, F, v. M. Until recent years this species was 
considered to be confined to the tropics, and there to form a large 
rambling shrub or small crooked-stemmed tree. But, when collecting 
woods for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, I found this species not 
uncommon in the Brisbane scrubs, and always forming straight erect 
trees, 60 or more feet in height, and a diameter of trunk about 12 inches. 
Similar trees I have since met with in the scrubs at Eumundi. It 
must, therefore, be conceded that this southern plant is the normal 
form, and that met with in the tropics only a depauperated growth or 
form, for I find no botanic distinction. The only reason which can be 
given for this tree having escaped detection so long is probably due 
to its resemblance to Carissa ovata, the leaf being small in the southern 
tree and the fruit seldom met with on small specimens. The grasses, 
Setaria glauca , Beauv., and S. macrostacliya , H. B. and K., are other 
examples where the tropical representatives are of a much smaller 
growth, and which might well be known as named varieties. We 
usually expect to find the tropical form to be more robust or the foliage 
and fruit to be of larger size, and such is indeed the case with some of 
our plants. Take, for instance, the inflorescence of Cenchrus australis , 
II. Br. No one, who for the first time was shown specimens of the 
southern and northern forms of this grass would take them to belong 
to the same species. In the case of the lied Ash — Alphitonia excelsa , 
Reissek — the foliage is often very dissimilar ; but where such is not 
the case the tropical fruit is fully twice the size of the southern. The 
same also takes place in the fruit of PJupomatia laurina , 11. Br. In 
the She Pine — Bodocarpus data , It. Br. — the foliage of the northern 
tree is several times longer than the southern. In the above examples 
the species are met with in different localities, reaching from the 
southern to the northern limits. But there are some curious instances 
where the habitats of a species, so far as at present known, are some 
hundreds, perhaps 1,000 miles apart ; and these in some cases have 
received distinctive specific names, as, for example, the Davidsonian 
plum — Davidsonia pruriens, P. v. M. — the well-known useful fruit of 
tropical Queensland, and _D. Jerseyana , P. v. M., found on the southern 
border of Queensland and in the adjoining scrub lands of New South 
AVales. It seems to me that size of foliage and fruit is the principal 
distinction between these two plants ; and I may remark that on 
southern-grown plants of the northern tree the fruit never attains 
more than half the size it does upon the trees in Northern Queensland. 
Acronydiia acidula , F. v. M., is a small tree met with on the borders of 
