OF MT. KINABALU AND BRITISH NORTH BORNEO, 49 
Stapf divides his botanical formations into 
1. The zone of the plains and low hills, or the hill zone, from the littoral 
zone which skirts the coast as a belt of varying breadth up 
to 3000'. 
2. The lower mountain zone, from 3000-6000". 
3. The upper mountain zone, from 6000—10,500'. 
4. The summit zone, from 10,500-13,400'. 
On Kinabalu zonal conditions are considerably modified. The general 
level of the surrounding hills, which have no orographical connection with 
the mountain and its spurs, is 3000-4000’. The mountain itself consists of a 
main buttress, forming a plateau about one mile in length on the summit, and 
a subsidiary buttress running at right angles to the latter for about four miles. 
Both these portions rise to the towering height of 13,400’ and 10,000’ 
respectively, This divergence militates strikingly against any uniform 
conditions which would lead to a zonal’ distribution of botanical formations, 
and a division on these lines consequently breaks down in actual practice. 
The only possible course seems to be to limit the formations themselves, 
as I have attempted to do, so far as possible in this paper. We would 
thus get 
1. The secondary forest, from 2500-4000’. (Stapf’s hill zone.) 
Subject to fluctuations in cultivation, according to the incidence of the 
population and the needs of the inhabitants. The upper limit of this 
formation on Kinabalu at present is about 3500', but I saw evidence of its 
having reached up to 4000' in recent times. Low, in 1852 (2. 8), mentions 
clearings up to 1000' below the summit of Nokok (Saduk Saduk), 6000’ in 
height, and St. John in 1858 says that one side of this mountain was cleared 
to its summit for rice production (7. 330). The population was then very 
much denser than it is now after the ravages of small-pox and cholera 
epidemics. 
2. The primary high forest. 
From 3500' to 6000’ on the main spur, and to about 5000-5500’ on lower 
spurs and ridges as on Gurulau and Penibukan, whereas in the more sheltered 
valleys it reaches a much higher altitude, both on the southern and northern 
slopes. On the latter I have Mr. Maxwell’s authority for stating that the 
primary forest extends to a much lower level, as the population is very 
sparse, and in fact, around the base of the northern ridge there is an 
uninhabited tract where the primary forest prevails. 
This primary high forest is left intact from 3500-4000' by the Dusuns, 
who no doubt appreciate its value as the sole restraining agent in the 
conservation of the mountain slopes. Any weakening of this protective 
buttress would result in the wholesale devastation of the immediately 
LINN, JOURN.—BOTANY, VOL. XLII. E 
