THE PALAEOTROPICS 207 



well as a variety of trees belonging to many families. I !oniferoufl 

 trees are not common, bat an occasional huge Kauri-pine {Agathu 

 loranthifolia) is met with, and species of Podocarpus and Dac- 

 rydium members of the yew family occur. Rattans arc every- 

 where abundant, and in the Pahang region, bamboos were partic- 

 ularly numerous, in some places extensive groves of tall bamboos 

 occupying the ground to the exclusion of everything else. The 

 number of bamboos in the Malayan region is very great, and 

 among them are species like the giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus 

 giganteus) over a hundred feet high, with stems nearly a foot 

 through. The bamboo groves are extremely beautiful, with their 

 graceful drooping plumes of leaves, especially when they line the 

 banks of some clear mountain stream. 



The vegetation of the Taiping Hills, is even more luxuriant 

 than that of the Pahang Gap. At 3,000 feet elevation the forest 

 was remarkable for the great profusion of lianas and epiphytes, 

 indicating a very heavy rainfall, which was also shown by the rich 

 development of ferns, mosses and liverworts. Many of the ferns 

 were epiphytes, and included a number of delicate filmy ferns 

 (Hymenophyllaceae) . Of the terrestrial ferns, the genus Gleichenia 

 was especially abundant, sometimes forming dense tangles of 

 interlacing wiry leaf-stalks that are very difficult to get through. 

 Fine tree-ferns are also common, the most abundant being Alsoph- 

 ila glauca. Another very conspicuous fern, is a species of Angiop- 

 teris, a genus wide-spread in the eastern tropics, the leaves some- 

 times exceeding 20 feet in length. 



Palms are much more abundant in the Taiping forest than in 

 that of the Pahang Gap, while on the other hand, bamboos are 

 better developed in the latter region, due perhaps to the lesser 

 rainfall, as the bamboos as a rule are not so characteristic of 

 regions of excessive rainfall. Of the numerous palms, large and 

 small, which abound in the Taiping Hills, a very tall Caryota was 

 especially notable. 



Other distinctly tropical types were the giant Aroids, some climb- 

 ing up the trees, others with huge calla-like leaves rising stiffly 

 from short upright trunks. Some of the Araceae of the Malayan 

 region are gigantic. One of these, AmorphophaUus titan um, of 

 Sumatra, has an enormous much divided leaf borne aloft on a 

 thick stalk 10-15 feet high. A number of similar but somewhat 



