CHAP. III.] CLIMBING PLANTS AND EPIPHYTES. 103 



A rich harvest of botanical discovery still remains 

 for the scientific explorer of the districts south and 

 east of Adam's Peak, whence Dr. Gardner's successor, 

 Mr. Thwaites, has already brought some remarkable 

 species. Many of the Ceylon orchids, like those of 

 South America, exhibit a grotesque similitude to va- 

 rious animals ; and one, a Dendrobium, which the Sin- 

 ghalese cultivate in the palms near their dwelling, bears a 

 name equivalent to the WHiite-pigeon flower, from the 

 resemblance that its clusters present to a group of those 

 birds in miniature clinging to the stem with wings at 

 rest. 



But of this order the most exquisite plant I have seen 

 is the Ancectochilus setaceus, a terrestrial orchid found 

 about the moist roots of the forest trees, which has 

 attracted the attention of even the apathetic Singhalese, 

 among whom its singular beauty has won for it the 

 popular name of the Wanna Eaja, or "King of the 

 Forest." It is common in humid and shady places a 

 few miles removed from the sea-coast ; its flowers have 

 no particular beauty, but its leaves are perhaps the most 

 exquisitely formed in the vegetable kingdom ; their 

 colour resembles dark velvet, approaching to black, and 

 their surface is reticulated with veins of ruddy gold. 1 



The branches of all the lower trees and brushwood are 

 so densely covered with convolvuli, and similar delicate 

 climbers of every colour, that frequently it is difficult to 

 discover the plant that supports them, owing to the 

 heaps of verdure under which it is concealed. One very 

 curious creeper, which catches the eye, is the square- 

 stemmed vine 2 , whose fleshy four-sided runners clinib the 



1 There is another small orchid 

 bearing a slight resemblance to the 

 wanna raja, which is often found 

 growing along with it, called by the 

 Singhalese in raja, or "striped king." 

 Its leaves are somewhat bronzed, but 

 they are longer and narrower than 



Singhalese name implies, it has two 

 white stripes running through the 

 length of each. They are not of the 

 same genus ; the wanna raja being 

 the only species of Ancectochilus yet 

 found in Ceylon. 



those of the wanna raja ; and, as its 



H 4 



Cissus edulis, Dalz. 



