104 DR. O. STAPF ON THE FLORA OF MOUNT KINABALU. 
and they are at the same time open to a great number of plants from almost any quarter, 
provided that they comply with the special conditions of plant-life afforded by them. 
These conditions, however, are—particularly in the case of bogs—far more universal 
than those of the forest. Yet the absence of competition from the side of the forest- 
vegetation must have another effect,—the preservation of remnants of old and retreating 
or already more or less extinct floras, a phenomenon so frequently met with in the bogs 
of the Tropics, as well as of the temperate regions. The position of the rocks is some- 
what modified, as their chemical and physical properties and the modes of water-supply 
are more varied, and the conditions of plant-life, therefore, in every particular case more 
specific. Still they represent the driest, airiest, and sunniest portion of Kinabalu. 
They are exposed, more than any other part of the mountain, to powerful insolation in 
the mornings, and to strong radiation during the nights, thus affording some chance to 
elements of less equable, sunnier, and drier climes. That they are still so poor in 
variety and quantity may be mainly accounted for by the nature of the granite, which is 
generally unfavourable to luxuriant vegetation, and must be specially so here, as 
the steepness of the slopes does not allow any accumulation of detritus, except in a 
few hollows and crevices. The more universal character of the conditions of plant-life, 
and the absence of any active competition on these bogs and rocks, make it intelligible 
that we find present in these formations plants which often or generally belong to 
different formations in other regions, thus rendering the formations of the bogs and 
rocks much less homogeneous than the forest. In fact, about one-half or even more of 
the bog flora consists of elements which are not typical bog plants, ¿. e. plants which 
are dependent on the particular physical conditions of bogs, and there is perhaps not a 
single species among those of the rock flora which might be called a typical rock plant. 
There are a few plants in this flora which belong to types which generally participate in 
the formation of the tropical or subtropical forest, and might be considered as elements 
originating from this formation and specially adapted to the conditions peculiar to life 
on rocks. But more than 90 per cent. of the flora of the bogs and rocks are perfectly 
foreign to the forest-vegetation. Some of these are Cosmopolitan, some typically Boreal 
or Circumpacific ; but about one-half is closely related to Austral-Antarctic elements. 
Amongst these we may distinguish two groups with regard to their broader affinities— 
one group comprising species which, though closely allied to Austral-Antarctic forms, yet 
belong to Boreal types, and another group which, looked at from the same point of view, 
appears still exclusively Austral-Antarctic. We thus deduce the following classes and 
subclasses. 
: l. Cosmopolitan Types. 
| Cosmopolitan types are Drosera spathulata, Utricularia orbiculata, Eriocaulon 
|»... Hookerianum, and Scirpus inundatus. They are as species not so universally distributed, 
- but are so closely allied to species scattered almost over the whole world that they have 
. representatives in almost every one of the great subdivisions of the earth with the 
exception of the Polar region. 
