84 DR. O. STAPF ON THE FLORA OF MOUNT KINABALU. 
reason to believe that we shall in future be able, with a better knowledge of the 
mountain and its vegetation, to distinguish an intermediate zone analogous to Junghuhn's 
third zone or cool region. This zone will probably comprise the uppermost part of my 
second zone (upward from 5500 feet) and the dense and high, hitherto entirely unexplored, 
forest which occupies the broad and deep depression from which the cataract of the 
Kadamaian falls (see p. 74) and the surrounding slopes upward to near the ridges. It 
would ascend in the sheltered parts of the valley probably to 9000 feet, but leave out 
the ridges from about 7000 or 6000 feet or still lower down. If this should actually be 
the case, the name “ upper mountain zone” would more appropriately be applied to this 
hypothetical zone, whilst the ridges would form a zone by themselves of considerable 
longitudinal extent, but very narrow when measured across, for this ridge-vegetation 
is less determined by the decrease of temperature than by the amount of light and the 
exposure to wind. 
The difficulties of cutting a path through the primeval forest hitherto compelled all 
travellers who visited Kinabalu to keep to the very ridge, between 7000 and 10,500 feet, 
whence our knowledge of the vegetation of my third zone is almost exclusively limited 
to that of the ridge of the main range. Hence also the want of joncieion in the definition 
of what I call the lower and upper mountain zones. 
Dr. Haviland (see p. 74) mentions a “sub-summit” vegetation forming a narrow 
belt of more than 100 feet high, immediately below the proper ridge. He describes it 
as very different from the * common jungle " below as well as from the ridge-vegetation. 
It evidently constitutes a very marked formation; but in the absence of a sufficient 
representation of this “sub-summit vegetation ” in the collection I must refrain from 
discussing it, and limit myself to the ridge-vegetation, which is represented very well 
indeed in the collection, namely by about 110 phanerogams, 24 vascular cryptogams, 
and 3 mosses. There are two formations distinetly recognizable, Primary Evergreen 
Dwarf Forest and Bogs. 
a. Primary Evergreen Dwarf Forest [Dwarf “ Old Jungle ”].—It practically occupies 
the whole ridge so far as it is known, with the exception of a few open places. This forest 
consists of small trees and tall shrubs ranging from 10-20 feet, and varying in denseness 
from almost impenetrable thickets to open spots. The trees are stunted, twisted, and 
weather-beaten, often being bent across the path. The trunks and branches are clothed 
inches deep with dripping moss and festooned with long beard-like lichens. Only conifers 
grow into fine trees here in some more favourable places. The tendency of some of the 
trees and shrubs to grow gregariously is distinctly noticeable. The foliage of these trees 
- and shrubs is often crowded on short and thick branches; the leaves, sessile or supported 
by short and stout petioles, are very coriaceous, of a dark green colour, glabrous—at 
. least above—and glossy. They show a marked’ tendency towards oval and round 
. forms, particularly near the base, and the generally entire margins are not seldom 
. Eleven species are designated trees, but, as already mentioned, only a few conifers 
attain under existing conditions a considerable height, namely Podocarpus cupressina, 
the scale-leaved form of which has been mistaken by some travellers for Casuarina, 
