42 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
[Vol. io. 
visited, but the almost incessant rain prevented much botanizing. This, 
as already mentioned, is the rainiest district in Australia, and the low wet 
forests are a veritable jungle, the trees loaded with creepers in great variety 
and exhibiting extensive groves of palms, comprising several species. Most 
abundant and beautiful was a graceful Archontophoenix, probably A. 
Alexandrae, but this was not certain. A very peculiar fan palm, Licuala 
Muelleri, was also common, and less abundant was the pretty little “walking- 
stick” palm, Bacularia sp. 
Farther north, in the York Peninsula, are several Indo-Malayan genera, 
Caryota, Borassus, Areca, and others, which were not seen in the Cairns 
district. The pitcher plants, Nepenthes, are also apparently confined to 
the mountains of York Peninsula. The development of lianas was very 
striking everywhere about Babinda. Among the most notable were rattan 
palms (Calamus) of several species, several climbing Araceae ( Pothos 
longipes, P. Brownii , and Rhapidophora australasica ), Piper Mestoni, a 
species with showy scarlet fruits, and several which were not determined. 
Epiphytic ferns, including the conspicuous Asplenium Nidus and species 
of Polypodium, were abundant, as well as other epiphytic types, like 
Peperomia. 
In the cleared ground were thickets of two species of Rubus, and among 
the various other plants of the open was a rather showy Melastoma ( M . 
Malabathicum ). 
Ferns, liverworts, and mosses were not especially conspicuous about 
Babinda, but along the banks of the streams were fairly abundant. A few 
small Hymenophyllaceae were noted, and some magnificent specimens of 
the giant fern, Angiopteris sp. 
To the west of Cairns the land rises rapidly to a table land, where there 
is developed perhaps the finest forest in Australia. This forest contains a 
good many very valuable timber trees, and is rapidly disappearing before 
the onslaughts of the lumberman. Some fragments still survive near 
Kuranda, at about 1000 feet elevation, but one has to go much farther 
inland to find any considerable stands of untouched timber. 
The railway from Cairns to Kuranda follows the gorge of the Barron 
River, which at the head of the gorge forms a fine cataract, the largest in 
Australia. Below the falls the steep walls of the canyon are heavily wooded, 
and among the trees can generally be distinguished, here and there, the 
massive cylindrical trunk and wide-spreading crown of the Kauri pine 
(.Agathis Palmerstoni), perhaps the most prized of all the timber trees of 
this region. Near the brink of the falls, a small piece of forest has been 
reserved in which are standing two or three fine specimens of this tree, the 
largest with a girth of about 16 feet. 
The forest about Kuranda was somewhat more open than the lowland 
rain forest, and the trees were taller, often with straight boles of great 
height. Only one Eucalyptus, E. tesselaris , was seen in this district, the 
