284 BOTANICAL NOTES. 



Ascending the hill slopes towards the source of the stream^ 

 numerous palms rise up on either side. The Garyota ("eala ") with 

 its branches resembling the fronds of a huge adiantum, the hand- 

 some " kisu " (probably a species of Dvymophloeus) and a tall areca 

 known as the " poamau," are those which frequently meet the eye. 

 Interspersed among them we notice the lesser areca-palms and the 

 fan-palm before alluded to. On the crest of the hill, at a height of 

 some 200 or 300 feet above the sea, are found tall forest trees, some 

 of them of gigantic size and attaining a heifdit of 150 feet and 

 upwards. Amongst them occur the ban3^an (" chim "), other ficoid 

 trees with the flange-like buttresses, and the "katari," a species 

 of Calopliyllum which supplies the natives with a resin for 

 their torches. In the following description of the interior of the 

 forest in this reo-ion I have referred at some length to the larger 

 trees. 



Tlte interior of the forest ... To obtain a true idea of the 

 forest-growth in these islands, it is necessary to traverse one of the 

 more level districts in the interior, which is removed from the 

 vicinity of the cultivated patches of the natives. Entering the con- 

 fines of the forest direct from the full glare of the tropical sun, one 

 experiences a peculiar and often oppressive sensation, which may 

 be attributed to the combined influences of the warmth, the humidity,, 

 and the effluvia arising from the decaying vegetation, to the impres- 

 sive silence that reigns, and to the subdued light or dusky atmos- 

 phere that there prevails. Meeting overhead at a height of some 

 150 feet from the ground, the foliage and the smaller branches of the 

 lofty trees form a dense leafy screen roofing over, as it were, a series 

 of lofty corridors in which the palms and the lesser trees flourish. 

 The gloom that there prevails is rarely lightened by the direct rays 

 of the sun, except here and there through the gap left by the down- 

 fall of one of the huge trunks that now lies rotting on the ground. 

 Nor is tlie silence that reigns often broken, except by the cooing of 

 the fruit-pigeons overhead or by the rushing flight of the hornbill 

 startled from its repose. Hero the steady blast of the trade is no- 

 longer felt and is only pejx^eptible in the movements of the foliage 

 of tlie tallest trees. Yet there is little in such a scene that would 

 strike the mind of the merely assthetic lover of nature. Flowers he- 

 rarely sees : they are only to be found where the sunlight can reach 

 them in the partially cleared spaces in the midst of the forest, or on 

 the sides of ravines, or along the coasts. On the other hand, how- 



