CH. II ON BO ABB H.M.8. 'FLYING FISH' 19 



interesting for its richness and variety as it was impressive 

 in its size and grandeur. 



One might suppose that, having once seen a small 

 portion of the forest, one has, as it were, sampled the 

 forests of the low-lying districts of the country ; but this 

 is by no means the case. The more of the forest I visited, 

 the more I became impressed with the fact that it varies 

 in detail in different places almost as much as the coral 

 reefs, and that to sample it is an impossibility. 



This particular part, for example, differs in some 

 important respects from any other part of the forests of 

 the continent or the islands I visited. The trees are finer 

 and taller, and the undergrowth of shrubs and herbs is, 

 comparatively speaking, more poorly developed here than 

 in Talisse. That most beautiful palm, the Livistonia 

 rotundifolia, whose leaves are so useful to the Malay for 

 making umbrellas, fans, baskets, and a hundred other 

 things, is abundant here, but in other parts of the forest 

 I have wandered for hours without finding a single speci- 

 men. 



One of the commonest of the climbing plants here is 

 the well-known ' tali ayer ' of the Malays, and probably the 

 Uncaria lanosa of botanists, which invariably contains in 

 its internodes a delicious draught of clear pure water. I 

 cannot remember finding it anywhere else. 



On the other hand, the ebony tree and the Sagoweer 

 palm (Arenga sacchariferum) , so abundant in some of the 

 forests, are here but rarely seen. 



Of the animal kingdom in this spot I do not feel 

 competent to speak. A naturalist who visits a place in the 

 tropics only for a few hours in the middle of the day may 

 come away with the impression that it is singularly poor 

 in animal life, whereas another visiting it in the early 

 hours of the morning, or an hour before and after sunset, 



c 2 



