208 A NATURALIST'S WANBEBINGS 



with a white species of honeysuckle (much visited by a fine 

 grey-haired humble-bee (Bombus senex)), and which together 

 formed a white flower-dotted field that accompanied us for more 

 tlian 700 feet of ascent. At 7700 feet there was a marked 

 decrease in the amount of flowers and fruit that the half-tree, 

 half-shrub vegetation produced, whose foliage, I remarked, 

 was of a more or less crisp and brittle texture. At 8000 feet 

 my eyes were gladdened by the sight of a most lovely orchid 

 epiphytic on the trees, which is apparently the true Dendrdhium 

 secundum;* its colour, which could not fail to catch the eye 

 of the most unobservant, was of the deepest purple or mauve- 

 pink, and its bells, suspended by a double-curved petiole of 

 a graceful form, hung in clusters of twelve to fourteen from 

 the tip of the stems. It is impossible of course to describe 

 the colour, but it was of the richest tint; the whole flower 

 was of the same colour, save one bright orange spot in the 

 throat of the labellum. For 200 feet upwards the trees were 

 profusely spangled with them, and it was really worth an 

 arduous climb to see and to gather them. It is surprising 

 to how limited an area some plants are confined. I could 

 find no specimens of this orchid above the narrow zone I 

 have mentioned. At 8200 feet I first gathered the beautiful 

 Easp (Bubus lineatus), which I obtained on the Malawar moun- 

 tains in Java at a considerably lower elevation. On the 

 Java mountains, from 6500 to 7000 feet, the abundance of 

 various kinds of Rasps formed a marked feature in the 

 vegetation ; here I was struck by their almost entire absence. 

 On the Tengamus in the Lampongs at the same height I had 

 met with no end of NepsntJiacem, and with a beautiful orchid 

 of the genus Gymhidium, but here neither the one nor the 

 other was seen ; one small scrap of a pitcher was indeed 

 brought to me from about 6500 feet, but, though I myself and 

 my hunters searched everywhere, we could find no more. 

 Here and there I now found small-leaved scraggy shrubs of a 

 species of Bhododendron {B. magnifloruin) bearing bright scarlet 

 flowers, and every further foot of ascent brought us among 

 dwarfed trees, and leaner and more scraggy shrubs, while the 

 moss on stone and stem grew deeper and deeper. At 8600 



* Not the Dendrobium secundum of the horticulturists, but a different and 

 far finer species. 



