1915-] H. N. Ridley: Botany of Gunong Tahaii. 



131 



II 



is covered with low shrubs about 2 feet tall, mixed with 

 herbaceous plants. Here and there we fine shrubs attaining a 

 height of some 10 or 12 feet, and these occur mostly on 

 elevated hillocks or ridges. The most abundant plant is 

 Leptospernium amboinense, and mixed with it is Boeckia frutescens. 

 This shrub often takes the form of a prostrate or almost 

 creeping plant in these spots. With these are the dwarf 

 Tristania, Terminthodia, Carallia montana, and Calophyllum 

 ventisiuin. Among herbaceous plants Xyrns Ridleyi, Schcemis 

 distichus, Gahnia javanica, Actinoschcenus, Scleria carphiformis, 

 and the two Nepenthes, Singalana, var nlba, and N. gracillima 

 are also abundant. Hnbenaria zosterostyloides (a dwarf form) 

 is common also, and looks very different from the tall form 

 in the woods. SpatJioglottts aiirea and Arundina speciosa 

 occur more sparingl3^ 



On the rocks where quite bare grow the following 

 orchids : — Platyclinis linenrifolia, Bromheadia rupestris and B. 

 pimgens, Tylostylis pulchella, Ceratostylis gracilis, and Den- 

 drobinni rupicolum. The peculiarity of this flora is shown 

 in the dwarfing of the plants, which in many cases also 

 take on a peculiar yellow colour. This is specially noticeable 

 in Tylostylis and the Ceratostylis. The rock form of this 

 latter is short, thick, and flesh}-, quite erect, and entirely 

 yellow. I found it also in the Teku woods, with slender, soft, 

 pendulous, green stems. The same yellow colouring appears 

 in Agathis flavescens, of which the leaves and branches of the 

 trees growing in the open Padang exposed to the full sun 

 are of the same yellow colour, while in the woodland trees the 

 leaves are green. The peculiar ochre-yellow of these plants is 

 represented in the plain country in Dischidia Rafflesiana, when 

 it grows (as it usually does) on dying, nearly leafless trees 

 in sunny places by the sea. The flora of the Padang is 

 typically xerophytic, the foliage being stiff and hard, on the 

 whole. 



Here and there are damper spots with a little accumula- 

 tion of soil, and we find besides most of the shrubs here 

 mentioned some additions: Podocarpus neriifolins, a curious 

 variety with deflexed leaves, looking as if it was withered ; 

 Dacrydium Beccarii, which occurs, too, on the drier parts, 

 but less abundantly, and its parasite Arceuthobinni, Burmannia 

 disticha. Ccelogynes creeping over old stumps, Isachne javana 

 (the only grass here), Rhynchospora glaiica, Lycopodium caroli- 

 manuni, and Eriocaulon silicicolum. This Eriocaulon is replaced 

 in the higher and drier spots by E. Hookerianuin, which is 

 evidently closely allied, but is a much condensed plant, with 

 short, stiff, coriaceous leaves. I should be quite prepared to 

 find these two species passing into each other, the latter being 

 a mountain or subalpine form. In these damp spots on 

 the Padang occurs the Pandanns (P. Klossii) as a dwarf stout 

 plant, unbranched, about 8 or g feet tall. In the dense woods 

 it attains a much greater height and is more slender and 

 weaker. 



October, 1915. 



