428 The Ke Islands. 



watex' everywhere penetrates its fissures ; at least such is the 

 character of the neighborhood we visited, the only water being 

 small sjDrings trickling out close to the sea-beach. 



In the forests of Ke arboreal Liliaceae and Pandanacese 

 abound, and give a character to the vegetation in the more 

 exposed rocky jDlaces. Flowers were scarce, and there were 

 not many orchids, but I noticed the fine white butterfly-orchis 

 (Phalsenopsis grandiflora), or a species closely allied to it. The 

 freshness and vigor of the vegetation was very pleasing, and 

 on such an arid rocky surface was a sure indication of a per- 

 petually humid climate. Tall clean trunks, many of them but- 

 tressed, and immense trees of the fig family, with aerial roots 

 stretching out and interlacing and matted together for fifty or 

 a hundred feet above the ground, were the characteristic fea- 

 tures ; and there was an absence of thorny shrubs and prickly 

 rattans, which would have made these wilds very pleasant to 

 roam in, had it not been for the sharp honey-combed rocks al- 

 ready alluded to. In damp places a fine undergrowth of 

 broad-leaved herbaceous plants was found, about which swarm- 

 ed little green lizards, with tails of the most " heavenly blue," 

 twisting in and out among the stalks and foliage so actively 

 that I often caught glimpses of their tails only, when they 

 startled me by their resemblance to small snakes. Almost the 

 only sounds in these primeval woods proceeded from two 

 birds, the red lories, who utter shriU screams Uke most of the 

 parrot tribe, and the large green nutmeg-pigeon, whose voice 

 is either a loud and deej? boom, like two notes struck upon a 

 very large gong, or sometimes a harsh toad-like croak, altogeth- 

 er peculiar and remarkable. Only two quadrupeds are said 

 by the natives to inhabit the island — a wild pig and a Cuscus, 

 or Eastern opossum, of neither of which could I obtain speci- 

 mens. 



The insects were more abundant, and very interesting. Of 

 butterflies I caught thirty-five species, most of them new to 

 me, and many quite unknown in European collections. Among 

 them was the fine yellow and black Papilio euchenor, of which 

 but few specimens had been previously captured, and several 

 other handsome butterflies of large size, as well as some beau- 

 tiful little " blues," and some brilliant day-flying moths. The 

 beetle tribe were less abundant, yet I obtained some veiy fine 



