CHAP. XXIX.] VEGETATION. 189 



porous a nature that the surface-water everywhere pene- 

 trates its fissures ; at least such is the character of the 

 neighbourhood we visited, the only water being small 

 springs trickling out close to the sea-beach. 



In the forests of Ke, arboreal Liliaceae and Pandanaceae 

 abound, and give a character to the vegetation in the more 

 exposed rocky places. Flowers were scarce, and there 

 were not many orchids, but I noticed the fine white 

 butterfly-orchis, Phalfenopsis grandiflora, or a species 

 closely allied to it. The freshness and vigour of the 

 vegetation was very pleasing, and on such an arid rocky 

 surface was a sure indication of a perpetually humid 

 climate. Tall clean trunks, many of them buttressed, and 

 immense trees of the fig family, with aerial roots stretching 

 out and interlacing and matted together for fifty or a 

 hundred feet above the ground, were the characteristic 

 features ; and there was an absence of thorny shrubs and 

 prickly rattans, which would have made these wilds very 

 pleasant to roam in, had it not been for the sharp honey- 

 combed rocks already alluded to. In damp places a fine 

 undergrowth of broad-leaved herbaceous plants was found, 

 about which swarmed little green lizards, with tails of the 

 most " heavenly blue," twisting in and out among the 

 stalks and foliage so actively that I often caught glimpses 

 of their tails only, when they startled me by their resem- 

 blance to small snakes. Almost the onlv sounds in these 



