Chap. Ill] MOUNTAIN REGIONS IN THE TROPICS 



725 



often overgrown by the delicate Nertera depressa, but, in particular, they bear dripping 

 cushions of moss. 



Beyond the elfin-wood, almost completely covering the summit of 

 the mountain, is a dense mass of shrub (Figs. 419, 420). taller than a man, 

 with small, or at most middle-sized, leaves which are all xerophilous in 

 structure. Rising above the shrubs are a 

 few isolated gnarled trees, Leptospermum 

 floribundum (Fig. 422), festooned with 

 Usneae, and, for the most part, having 

 their umbrella-shaped crowns, during my 

 visit in December, thickly decked with 

 white flowers. 



The dominant shrub is the woolly Anaphalis 

 javanica, which, growing socially, often entirely 

 excludes all other woody plants (Figs. 420, 421). 

 Common, but scattered, is Rhododendron retu- 

 sum, which has densely set scales and which, 

 in the shape of its leaves and the size of its 

 flowers, recalls our alpine Rhododendrons. 

 Likewise dominant are smooth-leaved sclero- 

 phyllous plants, some of them with a slight 

 tendency to succulence ; for instance, Myrsine 

 avenis, Eurya glabra,Vaccinium varingiaefolium 

 and V. floribundum, Gaultheria punctata, and 

 Myrica javanica. There are even some tree- 

 ferns of low stature. 



Here and there the scrub on the summit 

 is interrupted by alpine steppe, the chief 

 constituents of which are narrow-leaved, 

 short grasses, together with Plantago 

 Hasskarlii, Gaultheria repens, and a very 

 hairy Racomitrium. 



ii. EAST JAVA. 



Fig. 421. Anaphalis javanica. Top of 

 a flowering shoot with strongly involute 

 leaves. Right hand : leaf of a sterile shoot 

 not involute. Natural size. Summit of 

 Gedeh, Java. 2,900 meters. 



In the east of Java, where in contrast 

 with the west the dry season is very 

 poor in atmospheric precipitations, we 

 find an essentially different succession of 



regions. The basal region, indeed, is like wise occupied by tropical rain- 

 forest ; this, however, is less luxuriant than in West Java, and in its more 

 abundant leaf-fall during the dry season is reminiscent of the tropo- 

 philous forest. The maximum rainfall here is met with in the basal 



