SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I927 87 



Forestry at the Government Research Institute, JTaihoku Botanical 

 Garden, should be released from his duties to accompany me. Thus 

 I was provided with an indispensable guide and friend. Mr. Yamada 

 spoke both Japanese and Chinese, as well as English and one of the 

 aboriginal languages, Paiwan. In our journeys together my lack of 

 understanding of Japanese etiquette must at times have been embar- 

 rassing to him, but his kindness and helpfulness never failed, even 

 under the stress of days in the cold and rain, after which plants had 

 to be straightened out and put in press at night. 



We went by rail to Rato, on the east coast, around the northern 

 end of the island, and then struck inland to Taiheisan, a mountain 

 whose age-old forest of gigantic conifers is being forested. We fol- 

 lowed up the narrow-gauge gravity railroad by which the logs are 

 sent down. A primitive but efficient brake and a Chinese driver con- 

 trolled the cars, piled high with enormous logs, most of them from 

 the two species of Chamaecyparis, counterparts of our white cedar, 

 which form the bulk of the coniferous stand. The track might fol- 

 low a niche in a canyon-like wall, or traverse a temporary trestle, but 

 whenever the sound of the down-coming trains was heard there was 

 nothing to do but find some place to sidetrack as the cars went careen- 

 ing by. The empty cars were pulled back by patient plodding water- 

 buffaloes quaintly shod with little straw sandals like those of the 

 Japanese woodsmen. 



On Taiheisan I saw the ancient relict conifer, Tahvania; the rare 

 Cunninghamia Kazvakmnii; a counterpart of our East American Sas- 

 safras, 5". randaicnse ; the anomalous Trochodendron aralioidcs, a fine 

 tree, botanically noteworthy because it is one of the few angiosperms 

 whose wood contains no vessels. A characteristic shrub which we 

 always associate with Formosa was seen abundantly — the famous 

 paper plant, Tetrapanax papyrifcriim, a relative of our devil's club, 

 from the thick pith of which the pure white material is prepared upon 

 which the Cantonese artists paint the bright little pictures that every 

 globe-trotter for a hundred years has brought home. 



After returning by gravity car from Taiheisan to the coast, we took 

 a steamer from Suwo to Kwarenko. Here we visited the Ami tribe, a 

 strictly coastal people who still preserve and revere the ancient canoes 

 by which, according to their traditions, they came to Formosa. Hat- 

 sune, near Kwarenko, was our point of departure for a trip on foot, 

 with Taiyal carriers, across the central mountain range, following up 

 the gorge of the slate-colored Mokka river. At the end of the first 

 day's march we were served at a mountain inn with an American 



