THE EQUATORIAL ZONE. 79 



Lianas, we will begin our observations with that very 

 remarkable kind of Palm which grows in the tropical 

 forests of the Old World called the Cane Palm, or the Rat- 

 tan Cane (a species of Calamus] ; they are "thorny climbers," 

 which, like the other Lianas, " twine up the trunks of the 

 trees to the very top, pass to the next tree, and descend its 

 stem to the ground, from which they again run up. At- 

 tempts have been made to measure them, and though per- 

 haps their greatest length has never been ascertained, some 

 have been found four hundred, five hundred, and even six 

 hundred feet long. The beautiful feathery leaves of these 

 Cane-palms, which are twined with the stem round the 

 trunks of the trees, assist not a little in enlivening and 

 adorning these forests;" and they are no less useful than 

 ornamental, for these are the kind of canes which are used 

 in trade for manufacturing the seats of chairs, the backs of 

 carriages, etc. 



In the forests of Luzon we meet with Tig-trees too, grow- 

 ing in a most extraordinary manner ; " flattened Fig-trees, 

 which grow like a trellis, or sort of network, over the 

 thickest trunks of other trees." There is a very large and 

 handsome Fern also, a kind of Polypodium, which we have 

 heard of as growing in the forests of the Philippines, which 



