CiiAP. II T.] CLIMBING PLANTS AND EPiniYTES. 103 



A rich harvest of botanical discovery still remains 

 for the scientific explorer of the chstricts south and 

 east of Adam's Peak, whence Dr. Gardner's successor, 

 Mr. Thwaites, has already brought some remarkable 

 species. Many of the Ceylon orchids, hke those of 

 South America, exhibit a grotesque simihtude to va- 

 rious animals ; and one, a Dendrohium^ which the Sin- 

 ghalese cultivate in the palms near their dwelling, bears a 

 name equivalent to the miite-pigeon Jlower^ from the 

 resemblance which its clusters present to a group of those 

 birds in miniature chnging to the stem with wings at 

 rest. 



But of this order the most exquisite plant I have seen 

 is the AncBctocliilus setaceus, a terrestrial orchid which 

 is to be found about the moist roots of the forest 

 trees, and has drawn the attention of even the apa- 

 thetic Singhalese, among whom its singular beauty has 

 won for it the popular name of the Wanna Eaja, or 

 " Kinsj of the Forest." It is common in humid and 

 shady places a few miles removed from the sea-coast ; its 

 flowers have no particular attraction, but its leaves are 

 perhaps the most exquisitely formed in the vegetable 

 kingdom ; their colour resembles dark velvet, approach- 

 ing to black, and reticulated over all the sm^face with veins 

 of ruddy gold.^ 



The branches of all the lower trees and brushwood are 

 so densely covered with convolvuli, and similar dehcate 

 climbers of every colour, that frequently it is difficult to 

 discover the tree which supports them, owing to the heaps 

 of verdure under which it is concealed. One very curious 

 creeper, which always catches the eye, is the square- 

 stemmed vine^, whose fleshy four-sided runners chmb the 



' There is another small orchid 

 bearing a slight resemblance to the 

 wanna raja, which is often fomid 

 growing along with it, called by the 

 Singhalese iri raja, or "striped king." 

 Its leaves are somewhat bronzed, but 

 they are longer and narrower than 

 those of the wanna raja ; and, as its 



Singhalese name implies, it has two 

 white stripes rnnning through the 

 length of each. They are not of the 

 same genus; the wanna raja being 

 the only species of Ancectochilus yet 

 found in Ceylon. 



'^ Cissus ednlis, Dah. 



H 4 



