BOTANIZING EXCURSIONS IN BORNEO 201 



Hibiscus, \QYy much like the hau tree {Hibiscus iiliaceus) of Hawaii 

 (perhaps identical), was also abundant. A most characteristic small 

 tree or shrub was a screw pine {Pandanus) , with long slender leaves ar- 

 ranged in a dense spiral, and big heads of fruit, the color and size of 

 ripe pineapples. Of the flowering shrubs, much the showiest was a 

 species of ^Yormia with big golden yellow flowers and handsome foliage. 

 There were also several leguminous shrubs with yellow and purple flow- 

 ers. A considerable number of climbing plants occur, among them sev- 

 eral species of Ipomcca very much like our common morning glories. 

 A species of Gnetum, with clusters of showy salmon-pink berries, was 

 also common along the shore. 



The ascent of the mountain is decidedly arduous, as the trail is 

 very steep, and at times it is necessary to scale the face of almost sheer 

 rock ledges, where one must pull one's self up by the roots of trees or 

 by clinging to such shrubs and roots as could find lodgment in the 

 rock crevices. 



The forest is comparatively open, and did not ofi^er much collecting 

 until the summit was reached. Here the forest is composed of gnarled 

 and dwarfed trees whose trunks and branches are moss-covered and 

 serve as a foothold for a host of beautiful epiphytes. The latter in- 

 cluded two superb rhododendrons with snowy white and brilliant flame 

 colored flowers; a number of interesting orchids and several pitcher 

 plants (Nepenthes), one of which N. veitchii, is one of the finest of the 

 genus, with pitchers a foot or so in length. 



The ground was covered with a dense cushion of moss, in some 

 places sphagnum much like that found in our northern bogs, and seem- 

 ing rather out of place in the tropics. 



The great forests of Borneo are hardly equalled in the variety and 

 size of the trees of which they are composed. As in other parts of the 

 Malayan region, the most important timber trees belong mainly to a 

 family, Dipterocarpacese, which is quite unrepresented in the New 

 "World. The Dipterocarps are often trees of great size, with straight 

 trunks which may rise a hundred feet or more without a branch, and 

 yielding timber of great value. There are also many leguminous trees, 

 remotely related to our own locusts and honey-locust. One of these, 

 the tapang (Abauria exceJsa), is the tallest tree yet measured in the 

 Malayan region. Beccari mentions one of these two hundred and thirty 

 feet in height. 



Many other trees, unfamiliar to the American botanist, are compo- 

 nents of the Bornean forest. Wild figs and banyans are conspicuous, 

 and several species of Artocarpus, related to the cultivated bread-fruit, 

 and also wild species of durian and mangosteen, the two choicest fruits 

 of the eastern tropics. 



A few types, however, appear less strange. Oaks of several species 



VOL. LXXXVI.— 14. 



