488 ZONES AND REGIONS [Pt. Ill, Sect. II 



other evergreen trees also occur, such as the camphor-tree (Cinnamomum Camphora) 

 and other Lauraceae, Illicium anisatum and other Magnoliaceae. Camellia, a widely 

 distributed plant, becomes in these forests a thick-stemmed tree up to 10 meters in 

 height. Shrubs of Ternstroemia japonica, Eurya japonica, Pittosporum Tobira, 

 and many other species, form a dense underwood. Traversing the air with their 

 twisted stems are thick-stemmed woody lianes, apparently belonging to the same 

 deciduous species as occur in the deciduous forests which are leafless in winter and 

 which will be described hereafter. The branches of the trees bear a few epiphytic 

 orchids (Luisia teres, Dendrobium moniliforma, Malaxis japonica, Sarcochilus japo- 

 nicus), epiphytic ferns, various parasitic Loranthaceae (Viscum articulatum, Burm., 

 Loranthus Yadoriki, Sieb. et Zucc). In these forests many tropical Indo-Malayan 

 families find their northern limit, for instance, Sterculiaceae, Simarubaceae, Meliaceae, 

 Melastomaceae, Begoniaceae, Ebenaceae, Piperaceae, Scitamineae, Commelinaceae. 



vi. THE TEMPERATE RAIN-FOREST IN SOUTH CHILI. 



The following description of the rain-forest of Valdivia, taken from an 

 account of his travels by R. A. Philippi \the best informed person regarding 

 the flora of Chili, will explain the character of its oecology and flora: — 



' In Europe or in North America we can almost everywhere walk between the 

 trees in a forest, but here this is very rarely possible, owing to the abundant under- 

 growth, the most obstructive component of which is certainly the " Quila." It is 

 really a grass, but of shrub-like growth, very richly branched, and provided with 

 evergreen leaves, often climbing among the trees to a height of 30 feet, and possess- 

 ing solid, elastic, very hard stems which are quite unbreakable. It belongs to the 

 genus Chusquea, Kth., peculiar to South America, three species of which occur in 

 Valdivia — C. Quila, Kth., C. valdiviensis, Desv., C. tenuiflora, Phil. The stems of all 

 the trees are not only superabundantly covered with mosses, liverworts, numerous 

 species of Hymenophyllum, of which H. pectinatum, Can., as well as the undivided 

 H. cruentum, Can., are particularly beautiful, also smaller ferns, such as Asplenium 

 magellanicum, A. trapezoideum, Grammitis repanda, but also with phanerogamous 

 parasites and climbers. The two species of Luzuriaga, L. scandens, Ruiz et Pav., 

 and L. recta, Kth., are particularly abundant here, and equally charming, whether 

 they open their white star-like flow r ers in the spring, or display in the autumn their 

 scarlet berries that are larger than peas. Their wire-like roots that run between the 

 moss high up the tree-trunks are generally employed in the manufacture of baskets 

 and cord in Chiloe. . . . Next to the Luzuriaga two gesneraceous plants are to be 

 found on nearly every tree, both of them with splendid scarlet flowers— the low, 

 creeping Sarmienta repens, Ruiz et Pav., and Mitraria coccinea, Cav., which forms 

 a shrub 2-3 feet high. Among the numerous climbing plants of the forests of Valdivia, 

 Cornidia integerrima and C. serratifolia (Saxifragaceae) are certainly the thickest. 

 It is not rare to see stems of these, as thick as one's arm, appearing to hang down 

 from the lower boughs for 40 feet. So long as they are young, they lie close to the 

 tree trunks, to which, likewise, they attach themselves by subaerial roots ; when, 

 however, they become older, these roots dry up and decay, and the stem of the liane 



1 Philippi, op. cit., p. 266. I have condensed the description. 



