32 
the ground, rocks, and sub-stage trees were strewn. Araucaria and Libo- 
cedrus seedling plants in all stages of growth, °Dawsonia gigantea in giant 
clumps nestling between the depressions of the rocks with the fern * Poly- 
podium Feet (also as epiphyte), constituted most of the scattered undergrowth ; 
while °Trichomanes aphlebioides, the peculiar Dendrobium papuanum, identical 
with Scirpus nodosa Rottb. in habit and appearance showing the samo pin- 
~ point white flowers, Psychotria sp., near P. sarmentosa, were collected as 
epiphytes, *Lycopodium casuarinoides draping some slender under-trees. 
This forest originally extended to the banks of the lake, which here rise 
steeply from the water, but kad recently been burnt off for about 10 m. 
from it, the exposed surface of sandy soil being covered with the upgrowth 
of Bracken with Lactuca proliza, and underneath *Marchantia polymorpha, 
the moss *Funaria calvescens, *Epipogum nutans, and on a steep sandy 
bank Dendrobium trifolium, with quaint red and greenish flowers, and °D, sub- 
radiatum, a mass of small white ones, were found, both probably originally 
epiphytic on some of the burnt fallen trees. 
3. Mossy Forest. 
The western slopes of the S.W. ridge, descending steeply to the marsh, 
were clothed in a small dense mossy forest about 7 m. high, of which the 
moss-grown logs and roots of trees inhibited most undergrowth, except a 
slender tree-fern about 1 m. high. The standing trees were draped in moss, 
Calamus arfakianus and the climbing Bamboo often veiling the upper parts. 
There was little in flower beyond the epiphytic “Dendrobium glauco-viride 
and Sericolea arfakensis, with banging shoots and pink flowers. | 
This forest ran out on to the marsh through much rotten wood and boggy 
areas, the latter gay with the beautiful white, pink-veined flowers of °Zm- 
patiens Herzogii with reddish stems and leaves, forming a long level Spinney 
towards the lake, where, with the increase in the size of the trees, the 
distinctive mossy character was gradually lost. 
Small clumps of Dacrydium novo-guineense and °Podocarpus papuanus 
marked the edge of this spinney, single crowns of Kentia Gibbsiana rising 
above the general forest level. In the lower portion nearest the lake Phaius 
flavus var. arfakensis, Symbegonia arfakensis with white flowers and bracts, 
the tree-fern Alsophila angiensis and a very common Pandanus, both isolated 
and gregarious, up to 13 m., high, with branched and unbranched stems, only 
the 3 flowers being found. Young plants of the Kentia also abounded in 
this undergrowth, which included *Rubus glomeratus with red acid berries, 
° Rhododendron Vonroemeri, and Solanum Gibbsec, the latter a semi-herbaceous 
spreading shrub, about 1 m. high, covered with straight yellow. thorns and 
with small mauve flowers. 
“Lycopodium volubile formed a dense mass on trees up to 10 m., and a 
Dendrobium sp. grew thickly up to the same heicht in a tangled mass like 
5 
a small Bamboo, the yellow-green flowers in pairs, unfortunately over, 
