20 MISS L. S. GIBBS ON THE FLORA AND PLANT FORMATIONS 
Murut “campong,” I was interested to see huge groves of bamboos, Dendro- 
calamus Zollinger, under which the Muruts evidently stabled their buffaloes, 
the ground, trodden and sodden by the beasts, testifying to long usage for 
this purpose. This offered an explanation of what had always puzzled me 
at Tenom ; for whenever one came across Bamboo groves in the forest, the 
undergrowth never spread underneath, the ground remaining quite bare 
as if it had been sterilised, an inevitable result of the previous existence of 
conditions similar to those obtaining at Kaningau, and this, on inquiry, 
proved to be quite general. 
Between the houses and rice-fields and bordering the streams, were patches 
of wood, where I collected Harpullia arborea with yellow flowers, very like 
some Pittosporum, Claowylon rubescens, and Clausena eveavata. Albizzia 
myriophylla, with Costus speciosus, was as common as at Tenom. 
In the open, which was all marshy “ Lalang,” through which the buffaloes 
cut neat paths, the pretty blue and often white Fwacum tetragonum was 
abundant, and drawn up amongst the “ Lalang ” grass were Smithia conferta, 
Desmodium polycarpum, Dysophylla verticillata, Indigofera hirsuta, with 
Mariscus microcephalus, Rhynchospora Wallichii, Fimbristylis diphylla, F. 
complanata, Scleria bancana, Sorghum serratum, and where the * Lalang ” 
was less thick, Alysicarpus vaginatus, Selaginella proniflora, Lygodium 
flexuosum, Lycopodium volubile, and often also clumps of Gmelina asiatica, 
overgrown with Clitoria Ternatea. Antidesma Ghesaembilla in some places 
formed little open woods with Entada scandens running over the trees. In 
drier areas Hypoxis aurea, Xyris pauciflora and Polygala chinensis covered 
the ground. 
Leaving Kaningau the “rentis” runs across the plain, passing several 
streams with fringing woods, where Fugrwa crassipes with long pendent 
peduncles, Blechnum orientale, the fronds 14 to 2 m. long, and the charming 
Odontosoria chinensis were growing on the banks, with Scirpus fluitans floating 
on the stream. 
When we skirted some sandstone hills, a delicious smell of camphor scented 
the hot air, and an undergrowth of bracken, 3 m. high, with Nephrolepis: 
biserratum almost as long, ran up the trees. A huge Macaranga with large 
stipules, probably M. megalophylla, the leaves 0'75 m. and 1 m. in length, 
which the ever-passing files of Muruts used as sunshades, was very 
abundant. 
At the edge of a clearing just before Apin Apin, Vernonia arborea, with 
large yellow panicles, Syzygium zeylanicum, a mass of feathery white flowers, 
and Pipturus argenteus wore collected. 
At Apin Apin padi was ripening round the Murut “ campong,” and 
children were busy on little platforms manipulating an intricate system of 
windmills and strings, on which the Macaranga leaves figured again as 
ce 
scarecrows. 
