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So much is this the case that the history and country of origin of immigrant 
man, to whose agency the presence of this ‘‘ Opportunity flora ” is indirectly 
due, can be pretty accurately determined by the nature of the invading plants. 
It is the absence of aliens in the “Opportunity ” associations of the Arfak 
which form the engrossingly interesting feature in the phytogeography 
of this region. 
1. Open Marsh. 
Endemism is the dominant note in the plant-covering of this marsh. 
Most of the dominant plants found there are now described for the first time, 
or were first collected by Beccari and Gjellerup. One or two have been 
previously described from New Guinea, as Eriocaulon leucogenes and Trisetum 
latifolium ; others, to quote new Papuan records alone, are incidental wind 
immigrants from the Himalayas, as Xyris pauciflora, Polygonum strigosum, 
and Viola distans. The latter is unknown in Malaya with the exception of 
the Philippines, while the others reach N.E. Australia, and therefore their 
incidence in New Guinea was to be taken for granted. In Utricularia 
racemosa and U. bifida, the former shows the Himalayan range and the 
latter is limited to Malaya, while Gahnia psittacorum, abundant on both 
these open areas and also at home in the forest, reaches E. Australia and 
Tasmania. Most of the other Cyperaceze are cosmopolitan temperate types, 
of incidental wind distribution, like the eryptogams, of which, in relation to 
the freshwater Algee, Professor West writes “that all the species observed 
are ubiquitous, few of the tropical ascending to 7000’, the one exception 
being Closterium Bacillum, known only from Burma.” The lichens, most’ 
mosses and ferns, including the Lycopodiums of these areas, are also cosmo- 
politan, while the only Selaginella collected is endemic. 
The one plant to suggest man’s agency was Desmodium Scalpe, an 
unexpected representative of a genus that may almost be described as alien 
to the Papuan mountain flora, but, growing on the site of van Oosterzee’s 
and the Pratts’ camps, it may be considered the one relic of alien intrusion. 
On Kinabalu this plant has so far only been found at Lobang, on the 
invariable camping-site. 
2. Cladonia Association of Koebré. 
None of the ombrophobous herbaceous plants with the exception of the 
Riedelias, a feature of the open spaces of the S.W. ridge and of this summit 
plateau, were collected in the surrounding forest. They were all plants 
requiring constant illumination and low temperature for their development, 
of which the germination of the seeds would be inhibited under shade 
conditions. 
Some of these plants, such as the Dendrobiums and Centrolepis, are 
common to the open spaces of the S.W. ridge and to the marsh; of the 
