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ascent. This was more precipitous and difficult ; the vegetation became 
more dense and stunted, and the curious pitcher-plants began to appear. 
To the first summit we had ascended near 2000 feet, we then descended 
about 500, and we had now a fatiguing ascent of about 1200 feet to 
reach “ Padary Batter,” which was to be our resting-place. When at 
length we reached it I was well repaid by sceing, for the first time, 
something of tropical mountain vegetation. My experience had hitherto 
been entirely in the plains. 
* Padary Batter” (the rocky field) is an expanse of even granite rock, 
at an angle of about 25°, and at an elevation above the sea of about 2700 
feet. It is in places quite bare, in others covered with a dense mass of 
sedgy vegetation, a great portion of which is composed of the grass- 
leaved Arundinacea, a beautiful Orchideous plant with purple flowers. 
But the most singular feature is the Conifere, which at this compa- 
ratively slight elevation suddenly appear in great abundance. There 
are here three species of Dacrydium, straggling irregular trees of twenty 
or thirty feet in height, with the leaves of a fir and the loose bark of a 
yew-tree. Next to these the Pitcher-plants were the most striking. 
They were in great abundance, and there appeared to be a great many 
different kinds, though, without a careful study of them, it is difficult 
to determine how many may be different states of the same plant. 
. Some have magnificent purple spotted pitchers eight inches long, and of 
a very thick and solid texture; these are borne in the air on the end of 
the long twisted midrib of a large leaf. Others are almost orbicular, 
. and grow in a cluster on the ground, the leaf being reduced to such a 
rudimentary state as to be merely a stalk to the pitcher. Other kinds 
vary from both of these; but we were more occupied in our search after 
their liquid contents than in the examination of their botanical pecu- 
 liarities, for the thermometer stood at 85°, and since we left the bottom 
we had seen no water. Now however we had plenty, and by selecting 
those pitchers which were unopened, or were buried in moss and foliage; 
we obtained very drinkable water. Most of them contain a kind of 
à insect soup, too strongly flavoured with formic acid, as I discovered, to 
my disgust, in my first eager attempts to get a drink. I here took an 
bserv ation for the altitude with the sympiesometer, and we then pro- 
ceeded with the ascent. We soon again entered a scrubby jungle, where 
we found the fine Mount Ophir Ferns in great abundance. One of these, 
the Matonia pectinata of Brown, is most beautiful; the frond grows on 
