12] VEGETATIONAL TYPES OF TEMPERATE LANDS 351 



in Chapter XIV, but in cooler regions they partake more of the 

 characteristics of the deciduous summer forests described above. 

 In spite of the relative abundance of climbers and epiphytes, even 

 the human inhabitant of cool regions can scarcely consider many of 

 these warm-temperate rain forests as anything like tropical, and so 

 it seems desirable to treat them here and correspondingly reduce 

 the width and complexity of our tropical, etc., belt. At best these 

 temperate rain forests tend to be considerably less luxuriant as well 

 as usually lower than the tropical ones, and to have fewer climbers, 

 epiphytes, and other ' forest furnishings '. Nor are plank-buttresses 

 {see Fig. 145) normally found in them. Moreover, they often show 

 a fairly sharp distinction between winter and summer aspects, for 

 example through admixture of deciduous trees. Although the 

 co-dominants are often numerous and inclusive of Conifers, the 

 local dominance is usually less mixed than in the tropics. The 

 leaves tend to be smaller and more leathery, and the main canopy 

 less dense, so that in different places Tree-ferns, smallish Palms, 

 Bamboos, small trees, tall shrubs, etc., form a lower tier. Often 

 the undergrowth is very dense and intertwined with herbaceous 

 climbers, the ground and tree-trunks being covered with a mat of 

 cryptogams and small herbs, making the w^hole quite difficult to 

 traverse. 



Warm-temperate rain forests are developed sporadically in the 

 southern portions of the United States bordering on the north shore 

 of the Caribbean, and more extensively in southern Japan and 

 adjacent Korea as well as westwards deep into China, in south- 

 western South America, in the extreme south of Africa, and in New 

 Zealand and some adjacent parts of Australia. Types approaching 

 them are also found in uplands in the tropics, for example of southern 

 Asia. In some places they merge into the sclerophyllous types that 

 are commonly developed in the less summer-humid of the warm- 

 temperate regions and will be considered under the next general 

 heading. IMany different faciations characterize different regions,' 

 particularly, and could be distinguished for example on the basis 

 of different dominants. They may also be marked by characteristic 

 associates, as in the case of those of Australasia with their Tree-ferns 

 and those of the southeastern United States with their festoons of 

 Spanish-moss {Tillandsia usneoidessee Fig. loi). Four examples 

 from different quarters of the globe may be briefly described. 



I . The rain forest of southern Japan which, where undisturbed, 

 is largely dominated by several species of lofty evergreen Oaks. 



