150 
for the purpose of getting to know the vegetation of such a 
habitat. The excursion of course starts again through the coco 
grove already referred to; in these parts of it the remarkable 
things are, besides the dense undergrowth of ferns, the thick 
wild growths formed by a low Ficus species, viz. F. quercifolia 
Roxb. with red fruits. Along the river are found in addition to 
a few cocos, a few species of trees as Leucaena glauca Benth., 
Hibiscus tiliaceus L., composing wide-spaced forest, intermixed 
with the smaller Ficus trees frequently referred to, the combina- 
tion forming a curious vegetation. Here I noticed an enormous 
specimen of the liana Tetrastigma lanceolatum (Roxb.) Planch, 
with the broad ribbon-shaped stems, one length of this being 
about 20 ¢.M. wide. Along the edge of the water-course itself 
there grew a number of mangrove-plants or plants that rather 
belonged to the Barringtonia formation; there nowhere exists 
a typical mangrove-forest of the kind that is otherwise so often 
found along the edges of a creek. We find there: Avicennia 
marina Vierh., Excoecaria Agallocha L., Derris heterophylla 
(Willd.) Barke, Cerbera Manghas L , Clerodendron inerme Gaertn. 
Calophyllum inophyllum L., Barringtonia asiatica Kurz., in the 
same order along a stretch of about a hundred yards. The sur- 
rounding wood does not present much variety of vegetation, 
though there are occasionally a few other species of trees such 
as Macaranga Tanarius L., and Vernonia arborea Ham., but 
this does not alter the main features of the forest. But a few 
ferns grow on the ground and some places are covered with 
the commonly occurring grass Oplismenus compositus Beauv. 
For the rest the ground was strewn with fallen trees and drop- 
ped boughs on which a rich Polyporaceae vegetation had developed. 
This monotonous vegetation however undergoes a sudden change 
when one reaches the full coco forest and also in the spots 
where the rivulet has broadened out into a shallow marsh. In 
the stream itself at open spaces there were clumps of a Typha 
species and behind them a growth of Saccharum spontaneum L., 
rising here to a height of some 13 feet; they were mostly 
arranged round the marsh, the rest being overgrown with lower 
plants. Especially numerous’ were Jussieua angustifolia Lamk., 
* 
