15 



(c) Secondary Associations : Inhabited Zone of Foot-hills or Lower 



Ranges. 



(d) Low Mountain Forest above 7000' : Crests of Main Range and 



Lake Basins, 7000-9000'. 

 All systematic collection was limited to the last formation. 



ITINERARY AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF 

 VEGETATION. 



(a) BEACH FORMATION. 



Permanent sand-spits, Waren and Wariap. 



The beach at Waren forms a long sweep on ench side as far the eye can 

 reach. A plantation belonging to a Japanese, who with his son had permission 

 to accompany me to the lakes, was situated at the mouth of the Waren River, 

 which, dammed up by a sand-bank, formed a green lagoon, with only a very 

 narrow outlet to the sea. A clnmp of Casuarina equisetifolia proved a certain 

 stability, but the river-exit, with the dip of the beach, must be always in a 

 state of flux with each N. monsun season. The great accumulation of s;md 

 to which Waren and also Wariap owe their security from the inroads of the 

 surf, must be due to the amount brought down and deposited by the rivers 

 at their mouths. 



Where the beach broadens out in the immediate vicinity of Waren, 

 a Pes-caprcB association with Tacca pinnatifida is formed, to be succeeded by 

 typical beach-shrubs, like Tliespesia populnea, Canavalia obtusifolia, Sccevola 

 Koenigii, Vitex trifolia, Clerodendrun inerme, Premna nitida, and a Gmelina, 

 probably villosa, which must successively bank up the sand against the wash 

 of the surf, as the Japanese had cleared behind them and planted coco-nuts 

 on the pure sand, with cotton and pineapples asundercrops. This is the only 

 spot along the coast besides Wariap where such a risk could be taken. Where 

 the beach was lower and narrower, the surf w:ithed through beach-jungle or 

 under Casuarinas to the overhanging fringe of forest trees. 



Sub-emerged Beach. 



It is several hours from Waren to Wariap along the coast to the north, 

 by what may be styled a sub-emerged beach. A little beyond Waren the 

 sand decreases in volume, strand plants disappear, and the beach narrows 

 considerably. Huge trees of Barringtonia speciosa lie prostrate to semi- 

 prostrate over the sea. Young plants of Pandamis &\>.,Draca>na angustifolia, 

 an immense Crinum, probably C. macrantheruin, with giant stools of 

 Asplenium Nidus, no doubt displaced from the branches of trees as they 

 fell, crowd the ground, all dusted over and growing plentifully amongst 

 much water-washed debris and plant detritus, both terrestrial and marine, 



