33 



PLATE VIII. 



UALAN. 



WOODY MOUNTAINS. 



December. 



The last plate represented the outskirts of a forest seen from without ; this will 

 exhibit them as seen from within. It has at the same time the character of a some- 

 what higher mountain district, which, however, as has already been stated, does not 

 differ materially from the thickets common on the sea-shores, as the island is but of 

 limited extent. The prevailing wood is the creeping Hibiscus populneus, the 

 peculiar growth of which arrests attention. Most of the horizontally directed stems 

 send up branches having the shape of straight poles, gathered by the natives for a 

 variety of purposes. Fantastically curved branches and branchlets are, as the illus- 

 tration shows, never wanting, especially such as have the form of a hook, and they 

 seem to serve as pegs for the support of the numerous creepers flourishing in 

 these thickets. These little excrescences are without leaves, and differ from the 

 principal branches by having a dark and rough instead of a pale yellow bark. 

 In these thickets the screw-pine (Pandanus odoratissimus, Linn.) is occasionally 

 seen isolated as underwood of considerable height. The higher the ground the 

 more abundant and prevalent become the larger ferns, the crowns of which are not 

 inferior to those of tree ferns, though they have no trunk, properly speaking, as 



for instance the genus Marattia ^13 | 14 The ground is besides covered 



with various herbaceous creepers, the dead stems of which, forming dense curtains, 

 are hanging down from the trees. But those rich festoons, which we have already 

 seen in our last view, generally consist of the above-mentioned Convolvulus, inter- 

 mingled with a species of Stizolobium and Piper. The woody creepers, the stems 



D 



