55 



conditions obtain for only one week, that week will limit the conditions of 

 the forest formation. 



In N. New Guinea as in Brit. N. Borneo I saw no forest that answered 

 to the description of rain-forest. 1 



Humboldt Bay. 



This bay forms a most beautiful inlet, broken in outline, surrounded by 

 mountains and protected by a small island, on which a very picturesque 

 Papuan pile-village with an imposing " spirit house " is situated. As the 

 Tidorese never penetrated so far (8, 87) the natives here are still unspoilt in 

 primitive condition. The Government Station is at the head of the bay, just 

 behind the beach. On a marshy spot near the " campong " * Tlioracostachyum 

 hypolytroides, a sedge with white upper leaves, bracts, and inflorescence, grew 

 abundantly. On the banks of the river Gigantocldoa novo-guineensis was in 

 flower, as at Manokoeari, also *I)raccena angustifolia. We entered the 

 " rimbu/' the Controleur having most kindly found me two Malays who knew 

 the forest, on the edge of which a handsome Casuarina with a spreading crown, 

 most distinct in habit, was abundant. Ascending the ridge, clothed in fine 

 high forest on deep brown soil, we found as undergrowth * Trichomanes 

 javanicum var. rhomboideum, *Diplaziuin maximum, with *Selaginella plumosa, 

 creeping, the palms Licuala montana with red fruit and *Arenga microcarpa, 

 the aroid Q Holochlamys Seccarii, like a Caladium in habit, and the under- 

 trees *Pipturus argenteus and Clerodendron Lindawianum var. glabrescens, 

 the latter with handsome white flowers and black fruit, also the climbing 

 *Polypodium normale and Calamus humboldtianus. 



Over the crest of the ridge, where great mounds of dead leaves testified 

 to Megapode activity in building their nests, we descended by a stream into 

 quite a different type of vegetation, one of those sudden changes in 

 comparatively small areas, which so constantly characterize the mixed 

 tropical forest. 



Along the course of the stream, in which I picked up pure alabaster, 

 much fancied by the Papuans for nose-ornaments, * Trichomanes humile was 

 found on rocks with * Vittaria elongata, the hanging fronds to 2 m. in length. 

 The fungi *Polyporus arcularius and *Hirneola polytriclia grew on dead 

 wood. 



As undergrowth the handsome Pteris torricelliana with fronds 1*50 m 

 long, and //i/j><>lt;j>is grandifrons on a rhachis about 3 cm. through, bearing 

 magnificent single deltoid fronds about 5 m. long, the petiole about 3 m., 

 and lamina 2 in. long, rising at intervals from an underground rhizome, \vas 



1 L. S. Gibbs, " A Contribution to the Flora and Plant Formations of Mt. Kinabalu and 

 the Highlands of Brit. N. Borneo," Journ. Linn. Soc., Bot. xlii. (1914) 8. 



