APPENDIX 



Lianas, in the proper sense of the term, are plants with rope-like 

 stems, which, rooted in the ground, manage to raise themselves by means 

 of the neighbouring plants, and often ultimately to overtop the highest 

 trees with their fronds. I do not, therefore, consider as true lianas those 

 creepers which in their early stages find a support in tree-trunks, but after- 

 wards, when sufficiently high, become free and independent. I have not 

 yet been able to draw up a list of the true lianas of Borneo, and cannot 

 therefore give the numeric relation in which they stand with regard to 

 the other plants forming the flora of that country. There can be no doubt 

 however that lianas are very abundant in the island, and that species 

 belonging to very different orders are represented in the group, though if 

 we include the rope-like palms {Calamus, and allied genera) amongst them, 

 both for number of species and in many localities for that of individuals, 

 these stand at the head of the list. 



The more typical lianas are however all dicotyledonous plants. 

 Particularly abundant are the Leguminosce of the genera Spatholobus, 

 Entada, and especially Bauhinia, several species of which are characterised 

 by their spiral stems ; the Melastomacece, represented by Marumia, Dis- 

 sochcete, Amplectrmn, etc. ; the A pocynacece, amongst which several kinds 

 of Willoughbeia, Urnularia and Leuconotis are valuable on account of the 

 caoutchouc they yield ; the Anonacece of the genera Uvaria, Ellipeia, 

 Artabotrys, etc. ; many Rubiacece ; some Cannaracece, which with their 

 rich bunches of flowers often show bits of vivid colour along the river 

 banks. Among the larger lianas, in some localities very abundant, 

 I must not forget to mention Gnehim, several Menispermacece, not a few 

 Vitis, and some Strychnos, etc. ; but I omit a host of others, in order not 

 unduly to prolong my list. I must not, however, pass over a Bambusa 

 (P. B., No. 2292) which I found in the vicinity of Kuching. It has thin 

 stems, not thicker than the finger, with filled-up internodes, and climbs 

 over trees by means of its stiff branches, which turn downwards and 

 act as hooks. To this bamboo, which is the only climbing species in the 

 Old World, and which has besides the peculiarity of solid stems, General 

 Munro has assigned in my herbarium the name of Bambusa solida. 



Lianas in Borneo are not only numerous as species, but extraordinarily 

 abundant as individuals, for in some parts of the forest nearly every tree 

 has one climbing its trunk and hanging from its topmost branches. 



It is plain that no other reason but the tendency to struggle upward 

 in search of light can have transformed a slender shrub into a liana or 

 a thin straight palm into a climbing rotang. Even now if a plant is 

 cultivated in a shady spot where it gets light only from above, it will 

 lengthen out in an extraordinary manner — will become " drawn " as 

 gardeners say. This fact, well known and of daily occurrence, illustrates 

 how in nature a palm, for instance, has become a creeper. If however 

 at the present day an erect Calamus, or other straight slender palm 

 be cultivated under the conditions favourable for lengthening out, a 

 creeper will not be produced, for adaptation has now become nearly 

 impossible. Erect-growing plants cannot now be turned into creepers, 

 nor can a liana become a tree, just as none of own indigenous plants 

 transported to the tableland of Mexico will turn into fleshy species. 



In various root-climbing plants the leaves produced at the earlier 



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