132 Journal of the F.MS. Museums. [Vol. VI, 



THE PADANG WOODS. 



The margins of the streams are fringed with dense woods 

 for the most part, the thickest part of the woods with the 

 largest trees being near the source. 'Jhe trees, however, 

 are by no means large, few reaching to 60 feet tall. These 

 woods run up to nearly 6,000 feet altitude ; at one point on the 

 * Teku River at 4,500 feet the forest is much larger and the 

 trees bigger. I will speak of these Teku woods later. 



In some parts of the Padang woods the forest consists 

 of small trees 2 or 3 inches through, and so close that there 

 are only a few inches between them. It is impossible to 

 get through these without cutting one's way every step. The 

 ground is covered with dense deep moss, in which grows 

 Cypripediwn Rohinsonii, Elaphoglossuvi decurrens, Geostachys 

 elegnns, Protoltrion, Nepenthes Macfarlanei, Biirmannin longifolia, 

 etc. : while on the trees are Dendrobmm hynienopterum, 

 Bulbophyllum rostratmn, B. galbinnm, Phreatia crassifolia, and 

 Obivonia condensata, magnificent plants of Coelogyne Dayana, 

 var. Massangeana, and the pretty little Bulbophyllum Skeaiia- 

 nuvi. In the more open spaces over the streams we find 

 Schitna noronhce, Ilex patens, Altingia sp., Pieris ovalifolia, 

 Melastoma sp., and Rhododendron jasminiflorum. 



On the stream edges lined with mosses and hepatics 

 we find the three little Utricularias, and here, too, grow 

 Xyris grandis, Argostemmas, and on the stones, in such a 

 position that they must be often submerged, are Anerincleistus 

 fruticosus, Scirpus Clarkei and Rhnacophila. The ferns of this 

 district are all of a xerophytic type — Dipteris, Matonia, Polypo- 

 dium, and Gleichenia, — the hygrophytic Lastrcea and Alsophila, 

 with the Selaginellas, being confined to the damp forests or to 

 wet shady banks. 



Of Cryptogams I collected a good many mosses and 

 hepatics, but have been unable to work them out at present. 

 Mosses are extremely abundant, at least in amount, the damp 

 forests by the stream edges being deeply carpeted with 

 them, and in some of the cold dark woods just above the 

 Gully and on the Padang the trees are draped in curtains 

 of olive-coloured mosses. Hepaticae are abundant by the 

 stream. Lichens are less conspicuous, with the exception 

 of Usnea dasypoga, which drapes the bushes of Boeckia and 

 other shrubs in the bleakest and windiest spots, and Cladonia 

 macilenta and rangiferina, which form clumps on the ground. 

 Epiphyllous lichens occur on coriaceous leaves in the woods, 

 but are bj' no means as common as in the low country. 



Fungi are conspicuously scanty, and, from the remarkable 

 duration of dead sticks on the Padang, seem to be actually 

 very few in number. Some of the sticks erected by Mr. 

 Robinson in 1906 for surveying purposes seemed to be 

 quite sound and undecayed. 



I found one fructification of the common Polystictus 

 i^niarius at the Camp, which may have been brought up 



