24 MISS L. 8. GIBBS ON THE FLORA AND PLANT FORMATIONS 
cheerful way in which the Dusun carriers—everything has to be packed 
on men’s backs—under the able management of the two policemen sent 
with me as an eseort, accepted and overcame all the vicissitudes inevitable 
in such soaking conditions, and wondered how a heterogeneous group of 
so-called civilized Europeans of the same class would come out of such 
an ordeal, 
A fine example of Casuarina nodiflora, near Korikut, was the only one 
seen by me through the country. Beyond Korikut we passed a stretch of 
secondary forest, in which Alpinia sericea, with a terminal raceme of creamy 
orange flowers flecked with red and 30 em. long, was a conspicuous object 
about 2 m. in height. Dioclea reflexa, with purple flowers, and the handsome 
Pandanus Gibbsianus, with branched stems and clustered black inflorescences, 
was abundant on the ridges as undergrowth, whilst the trees Ligustrum robus- 
tum, Clethra canescens, Acalypha stipulacea and A. Caturus, Pouzolzia viminea, 
Astronia. smilacifolia, and Ficus chrysocarpa as a shrub or tree, were collected 
along the “rentis.” Red gourds, spherical in shape, flattened at each end, 
were suspended on long thread-like pedicels in quantity from the trees, the 
plants showing no leaves, and Gynura sarmentosa was gene rally scrambling 
in sunny places. 
Soon we emerged on a long ridge, skirting a valley, at about 2000! above it. 
The land here was entirely cleared: substantial woods, however, fringed 
the streams which flowed down the sides. Picturesque little Dusun villages 
were perched in all directions on the sides of the valley and on the ridges, 
often only indicated by the indispensable coco-nuts, Arecas, and bananas. 
Sweet potatoes were always planted round the houses, along with small 
tobacco patches and various gourds which made excellent eating, and maize 
in perfection of cob was a joyous sight. 
Finally, rounding a spur, we dropped down to Mensangau, where we had 
to pass the night, the river being too high to cross. Here I collected 
Marchantia emarginata on a bank, and Equisetum debile was abundant by 
the river. 
When erossing the Mensangau next day, we found, judging by the 
vegetation on its banks, that the river had fallen almost 1 m. in the night. 
Even then there was so much water that the three biggest men had to 
earry all the loads across. 
The path on the other side rose steeply on sticky clay through forest, and 
its condition gave some idea of the ceaseless labour these paths entail. 
Every one of the many angles was washed away wherever streams came 
down, and only the tenacious nature of the clay enabled the pony to get 
over. As undergrowth, Pollia sumatrana and Hydrocotyle javanica were 
growing in patches, and a beautiful clump of bamboo, with a magnificent 
flowering shoot on a separate stem about the same height as the vegetative 
