IN BORNEAN FORESTS 



[chap. 



Burmannias 1 were the reward of my patient and careful search in 

 places where the forest was thickest, the shade densest, and the 

 stratum of humus richest (Fig. 25). 



Under like conditions I was pretty certain to come across those 

 small ground orchids (Anoectochilus, Goody era, etc.), with variegated 

 leaves, spotted and striped with gold and silver and showing 

 metallic sheens, which form the joy of orchid lovers, and are un- 

 doubtedly amongst the most charming and marvellous products of 



1 2 3 



Fig. 25. BURMANNIACES OF THE MATTANG FOREST (natural size). (i) GEOMITRA 



EPISCOPALIS, BECC. (2) THISMIA NEPTUNIS, BECC. (3) THISMIA OPHIURIS, BECC. 



the vegetable kingdom. The slender and wax-like saprophytes 

 just mentioned have very minute seeds, which cannot possibly be 

 raised from the damp soil of the dense forest on which they fall so 

 as to attain the higher currents of the atmosphere, and it is rather 

 difficult to see how such plants succeed in widening their geo- 

 graphical range. The fact remains, however, that some of them 

 are to be met with on almost all the Malay islands, from the Malav 

 Peninsula to New Guinea. I have endeavoured (Malesia, vol. iii. 

 p. 325) to explain the matter through the agency of earthworms 

 1 Malesia, vol. i. p. 240, and vol. iii. p. 318. 

 112 



