EXPEDITION INTO INTERIOR SUMATRA. bY 
tearing a way for itself through and over the most colossal 
and massive rocks, is truly terrific. 
And what shall we say regarding the fine layer of earth, 
which covers the rock, and which, although often not more 
than a few centimetres in depth, yet nourishes and gives its 
vital forces toa forest of gigantic trees, of brushwood and 
lianes infinitely varied, and wearying the imagination with 
their diversity of form and colour? | 
Our European forests cannot be compared with the flora 
which Sumatra presents to our astonished eyes. Gigantic 
trees strike their tenacious roots into the earth, or project 
them into the air, as though nervously defending themselves 
against the attacks of assailants. 
In straight lines and fantastic curves, branches, leaves, 
trunks and roots, twist in and out disputing for nourish- 
ment; here lianes attach themselves like tightened ropes to 
the trees, or else twist in spirals round a young tree, whilst 
there, they are poised without support, cork-screw fashion. 
What is the meaning of this spiral without a prop? The 
victim which it formerly entwined, succumbed to its stifling 
embrace and fell into dust, leaving only the fatal knot which 
had strangled it. No plant can grow without a struggle: 
parasites are everywhere, on the bark, on the branches, on 
the leaves. It may easily be understood how hard it is to 
recognise the parent amidst this chaos; the parasites climb 
from branch to branch, until the last leaf disappears, and 
the last twig, bending beneath their weight, succumbs, and 
hangs like the powerless arm of a vanquished man. And all 
this luxuriant verdure, striving to climb on high in order to 
enjoy the sparkling sun-light, twists about and forms an in- 
extricable network, which only the wood-knife and the axe can 
unravel, The rattan winds about like a snake between the 
most delicate stems as well as between the thickest trunks, 
and rears its spiny head, like a plume, amidst the tops of the 
loftiest trees. 7 
From time to time a bamboo grove presents an agreeable 
change to the eye. The large stems spring forth majes- 
tically, to fall afterwards in graceful curves ; sometimes the 
path is blocked by a fallen tree, which in its heavy fall has 
dragged down a whole plantation with it, while crushing a 
