Chap, xviii.] ORCHIDS AND FERNS. 



393 



Areca Palms, as can be made out on a nearer view. The 

 general dark-green mass of vegetation on the hill-sides is fes- 

 tooned with creepers, and the smaller outlying islands, dotted 

 about in front of the main island, are all thickly wooded. 

 Those which are inhabited are distinguished at once by the 

 large number of cocoanut trees growing upon them and form- 

 ing the main feature of their vegetation. 



I landed twice upon the main land. The trees where the 

 shore is not swampy overhang the sea with immense horizontal 

 branches. The bases of many of the trunks of these trees are 

 constantly washed by the waves ; but they nevertheless have 

 large woody Fungi growing upon them, sometimes attached so 

 low down that they are frequently immersed in salt water. 

 The overhanging branches are loaded with a thick growth of 

 epiphytes ; and I had to wade up to my middle in the sea in 

 order to collect specimens of orchids and ferns which hung 

 often only a couple of feet above the water. 



In other places the shore is swampy, and is either covered 

 with Mangroves, or with a dense growth of high trees with tall 

 straight trunks, so closely set that it was very sensibly dark 

 beneath them. In such a grove near Pigeon Island, a small 

 outlier near the anchorage, the ground beneath is bare and 

 muddy, and beset with the bare roots of the trees, whilst the 

 trunks of the trees and fallen logs are covered with a most 

 luxuriant growth of feathery mosses and Jungermannias. 



On one of these tree trunks I found a very curious and rare 

 Fern, known before only from Samoa and New Caledonia 

 {Trichoinanes peltatuni). The fronds of the fern are circular 

 in form, are connected by a slender rhizome and adhere in 

 rows to the bark. They are pressed absolutely flat against the 

 bark, so as to look like an adherent crust, and have all the 

 appearance of a Riccia or some such Liverwort, for which 

 indeed I took them, as I gathered specimens by shaving off 

 the bark. A species of Adder's-tongue Fern {Ophioglossiim 

 pendulum), unlike our humble little English form, grows in 

 abundance, attached to tree stems with long pendulous fronds 

 as much as a yard in length. 



Most of my time during our stay was consumed in the 

 collection of plants, since the Botany of the Admiralty Group 

 was entirely unknown. Several of the ferns when examined 

 at Kew, proved, as was to be expected in such a locality, of 

 new species. Amongst the plants was a new Tree-fern ; and 

 one Orchid formed a new section of the genus Dendrobium. 



All my spare time was devoted to studying the habits and 

 language of the natives. I several times visited Wild Island, 

 and roamed about with a native guide. The guides always 



