38 MISS L. S, GIBBS ON THE FLORA AND PLANT FORMATIONS 
reduced in stature, whilst amongst the very luxuriant epiphytic growth 
Eria feror, 025 metre in height, was in flower. 
As this formation opened out a little we came upon the first plants of 
Nepenthes villosa, erect, just over one metre in height, both in flower and 
fruit, with the beautiful pitchers radiating round the plant and embedded 
in the moss up to the middle, the petioles of the upper leaves lengthened 
accordingly. I did not come across the giant of all, V. Rajah, named by 
Sir Hugh Low in honour of the Rajah Brooke of Sarawak, and spoken 
of previously as very abundant, nor did I observe any plants of N. villosa 
approximating in size to those described by Burbidge, nor was this species 
seen in anything like the same quantity as the observations of previous 
observers would lead one to expect. 
When we left the sheltered mossy forest and emerged on the open ridge at 
8000', the same yellow clay and rotten yellow rock was exposed as previously 
seen on the Maraiparai. Specimens of both having been submitted to 
Dr. Cullis, of the Royal School of Mines, he found that they were identical in 
composition, representing disintegrated serpentine, the green olivine matrix 
being still intaet. He hazards the following possible explanation of the 
presence of this formation :—'* The occurrence of serpentine on the spurs of 
the mountain at some distance from the summit on more than one point, viz., 
on the Maraiparai at 5000" and on the south-western spur at 8000—11,500', 
suggests that possibly the massif as a whole may be a differentiated plutonie 
complex with basie rocks (peridotite) around its margin, and acid rocks 
(granites) in its centre." 
On the ridge the vegetation was open, consisting of a tangled shrubby 
growth of quite a southern-hemisphere facies. Here Diplycosia ciliolata, 
D. cinnamomifolia with its waxy pink bells, Vaccinium coriaceum, Rhodo- 
dendron ericoides, Daphniphyllum borneense, Ilex revoluta, stiffly erect, with 
white flowers and very recurved leaves, and the ubiquitous /Jedyotis 
pulchella rose to 1-2 metres in height, the most striking plant being 
Vaeeintum cordifolium, whose long wand-like branches terminating with a 
row of lovely pink- or white-waxy bells, 2-3 em. long, swept along the 
ground or over it, or through the bushes, quite wanting in the usual rigidity 
of the genus and conspicuous by its young reddish tomentose foliage.. 
Diplycosia kinabaluensis appeared again, spreading on the ground where the 
shrubby growth was not so dense, along with Polypodium triquetrum, Poly- 
stichum aristatum, and Dipteris conjugata, whilst all the way up clumps of 
Rhododendron rugosum, 2-3 metres high and smothered with mauve-pink 
blossom, were a lovely sight. 'epenthes. tentaculata with Gleichenia cir- 
cinnata var. borneensis, (Z. vestita, and Lycopodium casuarinoides trailed over 
and through everything. 
Farther on, where the ridge was broader, Dacrydium, Podovarpus and 
Phyllocladus reappeared as small spaced trees with mossy covered stems, 
