126 A DAY AT CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 



quite of the same nature as the Christmas Island rock as far 

 as I could make out, but the organic remains were plainly 

 visible and the rock less compact. 



The soil which covers the rock beds in the forest is 

 powdery, and dark brown, strongly impregnated with guano 

 from the droppings of the numerous sea birds nesting upon 

 the trees very similar to that of Fernando de Noronha. The 

 forest is composed of a large variety of trees, many of very large 

 size and producing good timbers, among them was the Gayam 

 {Inocarpus edulis), species of Eugenia and Ficus, Sideroxylon 

 sundaicum, an Erythrina with very small but brilliant orange 

 flowers, and several other kinds of which I was unable to procure 

 enough material to identify. The trees are clothed with ferns 

 of several species, orchids and a wax-plant {Hoya Aldrichii, 

 Hemsl.) which is called by the colonists the Flower of Para- 

 dise, from its beauty. It is very abundant, but I saw no trace 

 of fruit or flowers, and had to content myself with bringing 

 home some living plants. The orchids were abundant, too, 

 the most common being a new species to which I have given 

 the name of Saccolabium archytas. It has thick bright green 

 leaves and long racemes of small white flowers spotted with 

 pink. Besides these there was a Deitdrobium of the Cadetia 

 section, D. crurnenatum, the well-known pigeon-orchid, a 

 curious new species of Sarcochilus and what appeared to be 

 one of the Phreatias described from LISTER'S collection by 

 Mr. RoLFE. None of these latter were in flower at the time 

 of my visit, but I secured live plants, and the Sarcochilus has 

 since flowered in Singapore. 



The pigeon-orchid is one of the most widely distributed 

 of tree orchids in the East Indian region, and I was much 

 surprised to pass a large number of plants apparently of this 

 species quite fresh and green floating in the sea between 

 Singapore and Batavia. One does not imagine that so delicate 

 a plant as an orchid could survive prolonged immersion in 

 the sea. 



Terrestrial orchids were represented by Corymbis vera- 

 trifolia ) Bl., also a very widely distributed species occurring 

 in Western Africa, Assam, all over the Malay Peninsula and 

 on the Malay Archipelago. It is true that BLUME in his " Or- 



