204 ON THE MILK-SAP 



wide-spread creeping roots of which thrives the giant 

 flower of the Rafflesia Arnoldi. Palms, with spines and 

 thorns, Rush-like plants, with cutting leaves, wounding 

 like knives, warn the intruder back by their attacks, and 

 in every part of the thicket threaten the fearful Nettles 

 formerly mentioned. Great black ants, whose painful bite 

 tortures the wanderer, countless swarms of tormenting 

 insects pursue him. Are these obstacles overcome? yet 

 follow the dense bundles of Bamboo stems, as thick as a 

 man's arm, and often fifty feet high, the firm glassy bark 

 of which repels even the axe. At last the way is opened 

 and the majestic aisles of the true primeval forest now 

 display themselves. Gigantic trunks of the Bread-fruit, of 

 the iron-like Teak (Tectona grandis), of Leguminostz, 

 with their beautiful blossoms, of Barringtonias, Figs and 

 Bays, form the columns which support the massive 

 green vault. From branch to branch leap lively troops of 

 apes, provoking the wanderer by throwing fruit upon him. 

 From a moss-clad rock the melancholy Orang-outang raises 

 himself gravely on his staff, and wanders into deeper 

 thickets. All is full of animal life ; a strong contrast to 

 the desert and silent character of many of the primeval 

 forests of America. Here a twining, climbing shrub, with 

 a trunk as thick as one's arm, coils round the columns of 

 the dome, overpassing the loftiest trees, often quite simple 

 and unbranched for a length of a hundred feet from the 

 root, but curved and winding in the most varied forms. 

 The large, shining green leaves alternate with the long and 

 stout tendrils with which it takes firm hold, and greenish- 

 white heads of pleasant smelling flowers hang pendant 

 from it. This plant, belonging to the Apocynacea, is the 

 Tjettek of the natives (Strychnos Tieute, Lesch.), from 



