27 



entailed a month's wait at Manokoeari for the next boat ; I put in the time 

 working about Dorei Bay, as Dr. Grjellerup told me it had not been collected 

 over. As the next boat called at Humboldt Bay, the limit of the Dutch 

 possessions, which is only visited every other month, I was able to take that 

 trip as well, collecting at each stopping-place, with very good results. 



The coast-collections proved very interesting, but phytogeographically 

 so distinct from the Arfak plants, no two species proving common to both 

 regions, that they have been separately enumerated. 



PLANT ASSOCIATIONS OF LOW MOUNTAIN FOREST 

 FORMATION. 



A. FOREST ASSOCIATIONS. 

 [Endemic species are marked , and those of wider distribution *.] 



a. S.W. RIDGE. 

 1 a. Mossless Forest. 



On the main range, or S.W. ridge, at 7000', a mossless forest asso- 

 ciation prevails, of slender straight trees about 13-] 6 m. high, with a very 

 open undergrowth of chiefly herbaceous plants. 



Undergrowth. Alpinia domatifera, 1-2 m., always in appreciable colonies 

 of one height, the flowers varying from white to red with red fruit, and 

 A. arfakensis var. subsessilis, with pink flowers and white fruit, were 

 dominant, more or less covering the open ground. 



Liancs. * Gleichenia linearis, spread over supports up to 7 m., while 

 the trunks of the trees were wreathed in the climbing ferns *Nephrolepis 

 acuminata and P^lybotrya arfakensis, from base to branches, the long fronds 

 standing out radially from the stems. Freycinetia Gibbsece, with very hand- 

 some red sheaths, hung bunched from the trees or spread in thick masses 

 underneath, and F. flaviceps, with yellow fruit, was more slender in habit. 



Trees. A group of Quercus Lauterbachii, the ground underneath strewn 

 with magnificent acorns of all sizes, some of those collected having proved 

 the largest known, represented a family recorded by D'Albertis (9, 69), 

 Beccari (12, i. 177), and St. Vraz (15, 33) from Hatam. *Podocarpus 

 Rumphii, recorded by Beccari, but not seen in fruit, was abundant ; likewise 

 Phyllodadus kypophyttvSj the Kinabalu species, and Podocarpus papuanus, 

 recorded as P. imbricatus (which it very much resembles, the seedling form 

 being indistinguishable) by Beccari from Hatam, and since found by Kloss 

 on Mt. Carstensz. Advancing due south, as the crest of the ridge narrows, 

 a gradual transition to an intermediate mossy forest of smaller trees with 

 branched stems and denser crowns, the trunks and buses covered with small 

 hepatics and mosses, takes place as the altitude increases. 



