342 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



than the rattan palm, that has not the necessary 

 stiffness to grow erect. I quote the interesting 

 description given by Mr. Wallace, who saw the 

 plant in the Island of Celebes: 



"The chief feature of this forest was the abun- 

 dance of the rattan palms, hanging from the trees, 

 and turning and twisting about on the ground 

 often in inextricable confusion. One wonders at 

 first how they get into such queer shapes; but it is 

 evidently caused by the decay and fall of the 

 trees up which they have first climbed, after which 

 they grow along the ground till they meet with 

 another trunk up which to ascend. A tangled 

 mass of twisted, living rattan is therefore a sign 

 that at some former period a large tree has fallen 

 there, though there may be not the slightest 

 vestige of it left. 



" The rattan seems to have unlimited powers of 

 growth, and a single plant may mount up several 

 trees in succession, and thus reach the enormous 

 length they are said sometimes to attain. They 

 much improve the appearance of a forest as seen 

 from the coast; for they vary the otherwise monot- 

 onous tree-tops with feathery crowns of leaves, 

 rising clear above them, and each terminating in an 

 erect leafy spike rising like a lightning-conductor." 



The usefulness of the long, tough, supple stems 



