284 The Gardens of the Sim. [ch. xiv. 



ing, much to the disgust of our Dusun guides, who 

 pointed to the dark clouds and told us we should have 

 rain, and much wished us to push onwards. Lower 

 down still we came across plants of the beautiful Nepen- 

 thes Edwardsiana, scrambling up bushes and casuarina 

 trees to a height of twenty or thirty feet. Both this 

 species, and also the curious N. Lowii, are frequently 

 perfectly epiphytal, all the old stems and roots originally 

 in the ground being dead, but the top growth has rooted 

 into the wet moss and debris which rests on the trees and 

 bushes everywhere around. Of the first-named there are 

 two distinct varieties, differing in the length and form of 

 their pitchers. N. Lowii is first seen at about 5,000 

 feet, and is one of the most singular of the whole group, 

 its urns being flagon-shaped, and of a hard leather-like 

 consistence. Growing quite plentifully beside the path 

 were tiny plants bearing tripetalous flowers of a white or 

 pink tint, and very pretty. In some places it was quite 

 bushy in habit and a foot in height, being literally covered 

 with blossoms. Some large mosses, one of them having 

 stems a foot in height, were also gathered, and a few 

 inconspicuous orchids, epiphytal and otherwise, were 

 observed in bloom. A plumose filmy fern (Trichomanes, 

 sp. ?) depended here and there from the half rotten casu- 

 arina branches overhead. 



Owing to the rain yesterday our descent was far from 

 pleasant, and falls were not infrequent, in fact on both 

 occasions I have found descending this mountain very 

 troublesome and dangerous owing to the wretched paths 

 one has to follow. I carried a sago sheath basket behind 

 me, fitted with bark straps for the shoulders, and it 

 was lucky I did so, for I had one or two nasty falls 

 backward, and it saved nry head more than once from 

 contact with the slippery stones. Our guides have at 



