51 



Geelvink Bay Pothos sp. not seen in flower or fruit, *Piper Forstenii 

 with liuge leaves, also sterile. The scandent fern Thysanosoria dimorpho- 

 phylla (PI. 4. fig. 7) with fertile fronds at the apex of the shoots, the type 

 of a new genus, was very common with *Lygodium digitatum, Freycinetia 

 lanceolata, *Drac,tvna angustifolia, *Flagellaria indica in huge examj)les 

 running up the tallest trees in the forest, and *Zanonia macrocarpa enveloping 

 most of them in its heavy curtains. 



Epiphytes. As in the littoral korang forest these were not numerous and 

 not a single orchid uas collected. Possibly the thick swathing growth of 

 climbing epiphytes and stem-clasping lianes may, to a certain extent, account 

 for their absence, also perhaps the porous nature of the subsoil, which 

 reduces the constant evaporation so essential to the support of the large 

 epiphytic flora common to the primary high forest of the foot-hills. The 

 moss *Pelekium trachypodum on dead wood, the fern *Antrophyum reticu- 

 latum, with the white-flowered Mymecodia puloinata, were collected. 



Undergrowth. The hepatic *I)iimortiera velutina was found in patches, 

 and the terns * Stenosemia aurita always in colonies, while *Asplenium laser- 

 pitiifolium, *Aspidium Lenzeanum, with *Dryopteris truncata and *I)iplazium 

 proliferum, the two latter like small tree-ferns in habit, were dotted about. 

 Small colonies of the creeping * Hemiyraphis reptans, *Geophila reniformis, 

 with the orchids, always grouped, Microstylis Gibbsete and the larger orange- 

 green M. xanthocheila, \\ ith Liparis maboroensis var. bistriata. Of larger 

 plants, *Centotheca lappacea and *Schleria margaritifera, the small white 

 Draccena novo-guineensis with very screwed leaves, were abundant; Pellionia 

 Vanhasseltii massed on a prostrate trunk and on the ground beneath, the 

 stinging Laportea armata about 1-2 in. high, gregarious on a small soak- 

 area, and the shrubby Arnarocarpus Wichmannii, about 1 m. high with 

 dorsiventral branches, were scattered over the surface, which showed no 

 understaging of shrubs and little even of young trees. 



In the denser undergrowth at the base of the forest, on the drainage-line, 

 abounded *Aspidium pachyphyllum with fertile and sterile fronds, Aglaionema 

 novo-guineensis about 1 in. high, the leaves crowded towards the top and the 

 flowers with green spathes and white spadix and red fruit, and Cyrtosperma 

 macrot urn ; Alocasia acuta, a peculiar plant with large fleshy leaves on long 

 petioles, crowded at the apex of a stem about 2 m. high, with the flowers 

 bunched in the axils of the leaves, was common, with the white *Peristrophe 

 ialappcefolia, not previously recorded outside Java. Schismatoglottis dorensis 

 spread in large colonies in more open places where the white translucent 

 Clavaria Gibbsece and * Dictyophora phalloidea, always yellow, were plentiful, 

 the presence of the latter being invariably revealed by the smell, with 

 *G easier Jim hiatus und the smaller G. mirabilis var. tricliifer. 



