Chap. IV] TROPICAL DISTRICTS CONSTANTLY MOIST 295 



boughs there hang wisps of Lycopodium Phlegmaria, Psilotum flaccidum, 

 and other species of Lycopodiaceae (Fig. 138), two to three meters in 

 length, and mingled with them the pectinate riband-leaves of a Nephro- 

 lepis ; associated with them are crowds of small ferns. The upper surface 

 of the boughs is an aerial flower-garden, where from amid a low carpet of 

 small orchids, of creeping Peperomia and ferns, and of scarlet-flowered 

 species of Aeschynanthus, there rise shrubby species of Medinilla with 

 rosy panicles of flowers. On the tops of the highest trees often blazes 



Fig. 139. Asplenium Nidus in the botanic garden at Buitenzorg. Much reduced. From 



a photograph by Tretib. 



Rhododendron javanicum, visible from afar as a tuft of flaming flowers, but 

 only discoverable within the virgin forest by its fallen corollas. This 

 beautiful plant becomes commoner at higher elevations and is then less 

 restricted to the tops of the trees. 



In many places it is not Freycinetia, but the far more remarkable Asple- 

 nium Nidus (Fig. 139) that gives character to the scene within the forest. 

 On all the tree-stems, thick or thin, even on the Hanes, its huge funnel-like 

 rosettes are fixed in series one above the other. They fill up all interstices, 

 they prevail over the entire landscape, they are the real victors in the 



