41 



knowledge of the flora and meteorology of Papua it is described near Laruni. The addition of a tall stemmed 



not possible to prove this. Hoop pine has been re- 

 ported from various places, of which the following 

 are official: Mount Brown, head of the Musa, the head 

 of the Waria and the Samberigi. It will be seen that 

 from the Samberigi in the far West, down to Mount 



palm was noticeable, and the armadillo-barked Eugenia 

 — Xo. 428 — was found over 6,000 feet up on this last 



mountain. 



The mid-mountain type of forest occurs on the north- 

 east slope of the range, and is easy to visit from 



Brown in the south-east, hoop has been found. It is Kokoda. Here the large boled Albizzia climbs higher, 



not confined to one side of the range, but occurs on 

 both the north-east and the south-west. It is probable 



but, generally speaking, the distribution of species is 

 similar to the forests on the south-west aspect. There 



that, when the whole mountain ranges are explored, are a few large hoop pines, and, curiously enough, there 

 further areas, similar to the Mount Brown to Mimai are some dead ones right alongside the path where it 

 forests, will be discovered. So important a soft wood goes up the last big climb but one. Here the continual 



deserves to be sought for with care. The present inac- 

 cessibility of the mountains where it grows is more 



clearing of the path on a rather steep slope, and the 

 camping of the mail escort that twice every month 

 apparent than real, and a time will come when this passes backwards and forwards from Port Moresby to 

 timber will be marketed and prove a source of wealth. Buna, have caused a strip of grassland, fire being, of ■ 

 ~~ " ^ -- - - course? f} ie agency that maintains the grass, and this 



to Papua and a boon to Australia, which imported 



£3,500,000 worth of timber in 1920-21, and most of caused the death of the hoop pines. There are fine 



this was soft wood. long slopes along this fiank of the range, and a big strip 



Hoop Pines' habit of growing on the spurs of the survey is indicated. It is easy of access, and the Biagi 



mountains is a very marked characteristic. It appears natives are good mountaineers, so that satisfactory 



to have been driven to the most exposed and rockiest labour would be available. 



portions by the broad-leafed species which admit of 

 no competition on the lighter slopes where better soil 



This fact must not be forgotten in reading 



occurs. 



The Mossy Forests. 



At the upper limits of the mid-mountain belt come 

 the mossy forests. The altitude averages 7,f>00 feet, 

 figures in the foregoing tables. The traverses were though, as I have shown, it occasionally is much lower, 

 all taken with a view of obtaining hoop pine data, and sometimes does not begin until S,()00 feet is 

 and so they all followed the spurs, and none was taken 

 across the slopes from one spur to another. It is not 



reached. The forest is so characteristic that there is 



, par- 



no mistaking it. While the mid-mountain forest 



possible, therefore, to arrive at even an approximate ticularly at its higher elevations, is mossy, it is not so 

 estimate of the total quantity of hoop pine available continuously in the clouds as the true mossy forest, and 

 on the Kemp Welch headwaters. All that can be said is therefore not so often saturated with moisture. In 



is that for a mile deep above 5,000 feet altitude hoop 

 pine occurs in the quantities given in the tables, on 

 every sharp spur and ridge between Mount Brown 

 and Ubua. At the source of the Mimai, I would esti- 

 mate 258,000 cubic feet of hoop pine. 



Pet ween Laruni and Kagi no surveys were made. 

 The forests of the mid-mountain belt that we met with 



the true mossy forests, there is only one story, and that 

 a very dwarfed one. The stems of the trees are short 

 and scraggy; they appear to be thicker than they really 

 are, because of the heavy cloak of moss that surrounds 

 trunk and limbs. The height growth of this associa- 

 tion is 25 feet, and the maximum diameter is 12 inches, 

 while the average is much below that. The trees, too, 



had good sit ands of the two oaks. No. 384 (Fuffi nia sp.) put out aerial roots, so that the traveller walks on a 



spring bed of roots covered with a green mattress of 



Mosses and liverworts cover everything, and 



moss. 



was very common, while the conifers were repre- 

 sented by all the podocarps already referred to 

 and the Phyllocladus. One or two Libocedrus were from the limbs hang in festoons the grey lichens. The 



seen, but I do not think we anvwhere reached 

 the optimum altitude of this tree — 8,000 feet. A 

 new tree, Dacrydium faleifonna — ^To. 397 — was found 

 between the Adai and Tuwui liivers. It does 



not attain any size, and in the neighbourhood Avas 



orchids and other epiphytes grow low down on the stem 

 as well as in the branches, and so are very conspicuous. 

 Some are pretty, but none is really showy. Tin 1 ground 

 cover consists of mosses, of which Dawson ia sp. is the 

 tallest. There are also quantities of filmy ferns and 



also found an Araucaria, which may prove to be Bid- Salaginella. Some of he ferns are tiny delicate things; 

 will. (a) It is a medium sized tree, 7 feet in girth, with 

 a 60-feet bole and 90 feet overall. Some new orchids 



and shrubs were found, and material of the mountain 

 bamboo, rattan, and Freycinetia angustissima was col- 

 lected. A Eugenia with very tapering, oil-dotted, 

 small leaves was common everywhere. I shall refer to 

 this again when writing of the mossy forests, for it 

 climbs to the very top of all the mountains I have 

 ascended. Its number is 31)8 (Xcutthomyrlus longi- 

 ruspis), and the Menari people know it as Faro. It 



others rather large polypods. The large tree fern per- 

 sists, as also does the mountain hamboo, a I'andanus 

 and Freycinetia angustifolia. I saw no Calamus. 



These were left behind in the lower levels of the mid- 

 mountain forests. The bamboo is, however, much more 

 trouble, causing long delays while the benumbed natives 

 cut a track through. Of flowering shrubs, there are a 

 number, and the Melastomaceffl are well represented. 

 Here occur the two rhododendrons, though I was not 

 fortunate enough to see them in bloom. The* tree 



few 



of which 



yields a very dense, hard, red-brown wood; one of the growth consist of very lew species, 



Podo carpus thevetiifolius — No. 257a — and (Xantho- 



myrtus longicuspis) — Nb. 398 — form over 80 per cent. 



of the stocking. All species except one have little 

 leaves; that one is Fagraea sp., whose comparatively 



heaviest of Papuan timbers. 



The absence of hoop pine from the mid-mountain 

 belt reduced the volume of the forests all along the face 

 of the mountains on the course we traversed. In other 

 respects, and but for the addition of some new trees, large coriaceous leaves and white fleshy flowers make 

 the composition of the forests was mtbch'the same until it conspicuous. At the very top of Mount _ Obree 



(10,240 feet), only the Podocarpus and Eupi mid were 



found, and the Podocarp was the more numerous. 



a long ridge was found. Here the moss forest descended 

 down to 5,500 feet, and for two nights we camped on 

 this ridee between 6,000 and 8,000 feet, and saw only Here, exposed to the elements on all sides, the trees are 



mossy forest. 



Vfter 



(T 



ossing the Nlaro at 4,900 feet, we 13 feet high, and distorted to a degree which it is hard 



climbed once more to 7,000 feet before dropping down to describe. Twisted, gnarled, crooked, and ben., 

 to country of the Menari folk. Except for the absence blanketed in moss, tufted with a thread-leafed orchid, 

 of hoop, the forest was much the same as those already carrying elbowed aerial roots, they look like an associa- 



(a) Subs* '{uoiitly Identified from Now Guinea materia] as A. Klink'i. 



tion of trees in a futurist's picture. 



