61 



PLATE XXIV. 



LUZON. 



UPPEE SAVANA DISTEICT. 



January* 



The explanations I can offer of this plate are even less satisfactory than those of the 

 last. From a convenient distance we scarcely ever lost sight of the mountains of 

 the island of Luzon from its north point to Manilla, and everywhere we saw the 

 character here represented, i. e. large grassy plains, upon generally not very steep 

 heights, always alternating with less extended districts, covered with thick and tall 

 forests, which only appear to be connected with each other at the foot of the moun- 

 tains. The custom of burning the tall grasses during the dry season is practised all 

 over the island, and in sailing along we had on several evenings an opportunity of 

 admiring this peculiar spectacle. The view represented in our plate was taken in 

 the mountains east of the Lagoon of Bahia, a lake drained by the river Passig, about 

 800 to 1000 feet above that lake. Although I have endeavoured to represent the 

 aspect of the forest as faithfully as possible in its details, I am unable to name any 

 of the prevailing species. On the whole, these forests are during this winter season 

 remarkable for the number of leafless trees ; the underwood, to which belong an 

 endless variety of creepers, is very spiny, and renders the thickets scarcely pene- 

 trable. Amongst the creepers especially, there are many so abundantly clad with 

 hooked spines that it is difficult to extricate oneself from them. The finest and 



most conspicuous form is the genus Calamus ^11 | 12^, which in a peculiar 



manner combines the character of palms with that of creepers. Long thin 

 strings are cobweb-like crossing the forest, here and there exhibiting complete 

 crowns of palm leaves, and their long nodding bunches of flowers are principally 

 armed with claw-like thorns. Their number of species, and the masses in which 



