Seifriz: Plants on Mt. Gedeh, Java 293 



are still present and of great size. One repeatedly stops to ad- 

 mire the huge, tall, straight trunks of these superb giants of the 

 mountain forest. 



The small trees of the second subzone include Meliosma 

 nervosa, Elaeocarpus Acronodia (and four other species of this 

 genus), Michelia montana of the magnolia family, Macropanax 

 dispermum of the Araliaceae, and Pygeum latifolium, a rosaceous 

 tree (Plate 16, fig. 2). 



Lianes are abundant. A conspicuous climber is the spiny 

 F agar a scandens, one of the Rutaceae. The huge stubby spines 

 tipped with sharp thorns give to this vine a vicious appearance. 

 Isolated specimens of the climbing aroid Epipremnum pinnatum 

 are met with. 



Of epiphytes, the beautiful bird's nest fern, Asplenium nidus, 

 still flourishes. The climbing pandanaceous epiphyte Freycinetia 

 is first met here. The smaller epiphytes of this second subzone 

 are chiefly orchids, ferns and mosses. An attractive orchid 

 frequently seen in Schoenorchis juncifolia, with long, drooping 

 stems and spindling, awl-shaped leaves, resembling a Freycinetia 

 in miniature. 



The forest floor assumes quite a different aspect in the 

 second subzone owing to a greater abundance of light. Tropical 

 forests are not as dark as most people who have never visited 

 them believe; indeed, more light penetrates a tropical mountain 

 rain-forest than enters a temperate closed deciduous forest, 

 and a great deal more than reaches the ground in a Maine pine 

 wood. The forest canopy of the second subzone is an open one. 

 Trees are fewer than in the first subzone and the undergrowth 

 flourishes proportionately better. 



The rattan and Pinango palms are more numerous here at 

 6,000 feet than they were a thousand feet lower. Numerous 

 species of Zingiberaceae are present. The two first subzone 

 gingers, Amomum and Phaeomeria Solaris, are still frequently 

 met with. The coarse weed, Cyrtandra repens, with large, white, 

 tubular flowers is widely spread in this as it is in the two ad- 

 joining subzones. 



Terrestrial ferns grow in great luxuriance (Plate 16, fig. 2). 

 Polypodium nigrescens is an interesting example which immedi- 

 ately attracts attention not only because of itshuge, coarse fronds 

 but because of the exceedingly prominent sori which, when seen 



