OF MT. KINABALU AND BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. 13 
fastigiate large-leaved shrub or small tree, Symplocos oblongifolia, was con- 
spicuously dotted about, representing a Philippine element. This association 
seemed typical for the small spurs which had been drastically and suddenly 
cleared, and whose inclines were gashed in all directions by what in 
South Africa are graphically termed “ wash-outs," there being nothing 
to hold the soil together, while the surface was hard and oxydised from 
exposure to atmospheric influence. Soil progressively impoverished and 
sterilised only supports a xerophyllous ombrophobous vegetation, a condition 
which even the large rainfall apparently cannot influence. 
To the north of the harbour the sandstone spurs dip to the sea, forming 
regular cliffs, clothed to the water’s edge in their natural verdure. Podo- 
carpus polystachys (d and 9) were growing almost on to the sandy beach, 
and on a trunk, dislodged and lying on the latter, a beautiful Dendrobium 
erumenatum (pigeon orchid) was in full flower, a rather interesting fact, 
as Captain Learmonth informs me that the vertical rise and fall of tide in 
North Borneo ranges between 6 and 10 feet. 
On the tops of the surrounding ridges small native clearings were to be 
seen covered with ** Lalang.” 
South of the mangrove swamp, a sandy level stretch, where the sea shows 
through a distant fringe of Casuarinas, has been utilised for the race-course. 
This area was boggy and wet in parts, and the whole carried an interesting 
sand-pan association. The drier sandy surface was thickly studded with the 
little yellow Utricularia bifida, the minute purple Salomonia cantoniensis, 
U. callophysa, the pretty blue towers of Burmannia celestis, and the red 
prostrate tufts of Drosera Burmannti. Oldenlandia diffusa, Vandellia scabra 
with white flowers, and the bright blue V. crustacea were abundant weeds, 
while Fimbristylis meliacea, Xyris anceps (?) with Eriocaulon seaangulare 
and Æ. truncatum formed masses in the boggy parts, where Callicarpa cana 
was also growing. 
The little light railway from Jesselton to Tenom, a distance of 87 miles, 
skirts the coast as far as Kimanis Bay, passing principally through swamp: 
forest, where clumps of Sago palms and the beautiful Cyrtostachys lacca, 
with its red leaf-sheaths, were most conspicuous. 
This formation was broken at Papar by padi fields, while at Benoni it ran 
right on to the lovely Caswartna-fringed beach. This is the famous site of a 
ave where, until quite recently, a fabulous monster of much fiction and 
little fact was supposed to reside. On leaving the seashore the track passes 
through swamp forest where Commersonia echinata and a Hernandia sp. were 
seen, till the la: d gradually rises betore Beaufort, where the secondary 
type of forest is heralded by tie first appearance of fine trees of Parkia 
Roweburghii with their beautiful straight white boles. 
Beyond Beaufort the steep foothills were strenuously cleared for rubber 
